Ghost Towns, Cowboys & Research = Fun!!

It's so much fun to visit the locations where I set my books. So far I've visited towns for 5 of my seven books and have discovered so much rich history. Here are a few pictures from three of the towns. 

This set are from Blowing on Dandelions, my newest historical romance set in Baker City, Oregon

The Geiser Grand Hotel, completed in 1889, a few years after my book, and restored 100 yrs later, is still in use today. 

A 'school bus' from the 1800s

Watercolor painting of Baker City at its inception

From Love Finds You in Last Chance, CA, a historical (Western) romance

The main street of Last Chance possibly taken in the 1880s or 1890s, close to the time my book was set. 

 Last Chance hotel. The upstairs could only be accessed by a ladder on the outside of the building. Mostly unmarried miners used the large room. This building fronted Main Street.

Four old fence posts in the formation of a corral. Very possibly the location of the blacksmith shop. Square nail heads show these posts date to the time of my book, pre-1890s. 

Love Finds You in Tombstone, Arizona, the book that follows Last Chance

I had a ball researching this book as we traveled to the streets of Tombstone that are much the same as they were in the 1880s. Great fun!

I got to dress up and pose for a few pictures while in Tombstone

One of several old stagecoaches that tour the three blocks of old town streets, also going down a back street (this is Allen St, the main one that is very close to what it was in the 1880s) the full three blocks, through some of the residential area, also much the same. 

Cowboy loafers on the main street of Tombstone give it a very authentic look.