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THE ARIZONA STRIP GAMBLER 
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By L. J. Brooksby
List Price $14.95
Copyright - Jan 2003 Soft Cover 6 x 9 250p
Agreka™ Books ISBN 1-888106-54-9 Library of Congress 2002112831
A Short History of the Arizona
Strip Read Chapter
1
About L.J. Brooksby More Books by
Brooksby
Where To Buy Their Books 
Grant holds his new bride’s
body close. All are dead from the stagecoach robbery – except him. The gambler
vows he will find the large man riding the strawberry roan, and his masked
cohorts, and the devils in Hell would pity those men.
Setting up his table in a
saloon, he forms a friendship with the owner Francie, bar girl Sadie, and two
young savvy orphan girls living alone in a dugout. Closely he watches the men
who come to quench their thirst and play a hand of honest poker. Then beautiful
Laura Blanding enters his life. Intrigue, betrayal, cattle rustling and more
murders create the backdrop of an even deeper mystery. The day of reckoning
comes and the entire town is stunned.
A Compelling Mystery in the1890s Arizona Strip.
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A SHORT
HISTORY OF THE ARIZONA STRIP
In what we speak of as the ‘Olden Days’, the strip of
land between the Utah line and the southern part of the Arizona Territory
harbored only wild animals and Indians. Few early explorers dared to cross this
land because of the lack of water. Going to the north, through Utah, rivers and
streams were found often enough that travelers could reach their destination
without choking to death. Not so on the Arizona Strip. Here water could not be
found within almost a week of travel.
In addition to the lack of water, those folks traveling from
south to north encountered the large canyon, later to be named THE GRAND CANYON,
which effectively blocked their path. Crossing the wild Colorado River could be
accomplished at Lee’s Ferry to the east of the Strip and Pearce Ferry to the
west of the Strip. Hardship became the constant companion of those traveling
this area. Only the Paiutes and the Navajo Indians seemed capable of traversing
this vast land.
Before the white man came, grass grew to the belly of a
horse, but when a few hardy white men established a fort at Pipe Springs in the
1860's, cattle were brought to the land and after a few years, because of
overgrazing, the grass became shorter and the number of cattle capable of being
fed on it were reduced. By the early 1900's only a few thousand cows could be
ranged on the land.
When Teddy Roosevelt became president of the U. S., he liked
to travel to the Kaibab mountain, also known as the Buckskin, to hunt at the
east end of the Strip. Hunting parties traversed the land by carrying enough
water to sustain them till they reached the small ponds found on the mountain.
His infatuation with the Grand Canyon at the south end of the Buckskin drew him
back many times, and later, enterprising young men established a visitor’s
lookout on the north rim of the canyon. With the advent of the automobile, other
travelers began to leave their footprints on the Arizona Strip.
The honeymoon trail, established by those young couples
seeking to be married in the St George temple across the Utah line, brought many
more to the area. A few small towns began to spring up, providing water and
shelter to those passing through. Logging of the forests at Mt. Trumbull and the
Kaibab resulted in more white settlers and by the mid 1950's, organized law
finally arrived.
No more did the land harbor only wild animals and Indians. So-called
civilization encroached. Water wells were dug, reservoirs were built to catch
rain water for live stock, and roads traversed the land bringing more and more
tourists to the area. However. to those who remember the time before this
encroachment, the Strip is still a sacred place. Not much has really changed.
Yes, more folks live here now, but once out of the small towns, the land is the
same as it has been for thousands of years.
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L. J. Brooksby is Lyle and Janetha Brooksby, who team up to write traditional western novels set in
the wild Arizona Strip during the 1890s. Lyle sets the story and develops
the plot for each of their nine books. Janetha edits the books, fills in the
characters, and enhances the story. Each book is written about a particular part
of the Strip and is built around something that either took place or some
particular item that may have be found on this arid land.
Click photo for full image.
Lyle Brooksby grew up a cowboy on the Arizona Strip, one of the last places
in the west to be tamed by law. His father, who emigrated from Australia in 1896
at age 12, besides being a rancher, and was the first Justice of the peace –
the only law on the Strip at the time. Janetha grew up a Texas lady, well versed
in western lore.
Since Lyle came into this world in the early 1900's, and grew up on the
Strip, he gained first-hand knowledge of the early events and places there. All
the books have a historical background, and the stories take place in a real
part of the Arizona Strip. In those early days, folks calling the Strip home
were called `Strippers’ and many people wanting to get away from the law in
other parts of the country jumped across the Utah line or the Colorado River to
find a place where they could live in peace. Outlaws, ranchers, troopers,
Indians, and even some normal folks found the Strip to be a good place to sink
their roots, even with the hardships that faced them. The story is told of an
uncle who became the only dentist on the Strip and later learned to fly an
airplane. Folks said he learned to fly the same way he learned to pull teeth, by
guess and by God.
Janetha became part of Lyle’s life when they were married and the team work
began when they treated many kinds of animals while practicing Veterinary
Medicine. After thirty five years of this teamwork, they retired to write about
the wild Strip country and it’s inhabitants. Being a true Texas lady, Janetha
brings the spirit of the west to the books they write. Between their love for
animals and the desire to let the world see the Arizona Strip through their
eyes, the stories keep flowing of the courageous men and women who braved the
rigors of the Strip life to make a home. Many animals take center stage along
with the main characters in their books.
Living among the three Indian tribes who call the Strip home, there is a
wealth of information flowing along the foot steps of time that is waiting to be
written about and many more books are in the works, telling of the outlaws,
ranchers, travelers, and just plain people who discovered this no-man’s land
and called it home in the late 1800's. Those stories will be told as the sands
of time filter by.
As late as the nineteen-fifties, wanted men slipped across the southern
border of Utah into the Strip where the Grand Canyon formed a natural barrier
from the rest of the Arizona Territory. This became a no-man=s
land. The authors' books are set in this wild historic locale. They write of the
courageous men and women whose indomitable spirit helped tame this part of the
west. All their books are built around a story and a place on the Strip in the
late eighteen-hundreds.
Readers can e-mail the authors: L.J.
Brooksby (click to email)
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More Books by L.J. Brooksby
The Strip Outlaw The Strip Marshall Queen of the
Strip.
All three may be found on amazon.com. Top
Where To Buy Their Books
This new book may be purchased through amazon.com, bn.com, borders.com, or may
be ordered through any book store.
Their books are also in stock at the following:
In Kanab, Utah. Canyon Book & Supply & Holiday
Inn Gift Shop.
R&K Book Store in St. George, Utah.
The Arizona Strip Interprative Society in St. George, which places the books in
all the visitor centers around the Strip.
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