Welcome to Jane Little Botkin
Having scoured the West for firsthand sources in family, library, and museum collections, award-winning author Jane Little Botkin melds personal narratives of American families with compelling stories of women, miners, lawmen, and outlaws in settings rich with a history that transitions into the New West.
Welcome to Jane Little Botkin
Having scoured the West for firsthand sources in family, library, and museum collections, award-winning author Jane Little Botkin melds personal narratives of American families with compelling stories of western women, labor radicals, miners, lawmen, and outlaws in settings rich with a history that transitions into the New West.
Jane is currently researching for her new biographies--Unintended Consequences: Molly Goodnight, Orphan Mother of the Plains and Hank Boedeker, Friend of Butch Cassidy. Check here for updates.
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Jane Little Botkin talks about writing and her books
Current Conversations
Always Look Under the Floorboards!
Never know what you can discover in old mining camps—under the floorboards, that is. Forget the hardware lying around, or even grains of gold. So far, my friends have found old photos, food cans (labels still-colorful), tobacco cans, and even cans of condoms. But a miners’ union entire ledger? Letters? This is a rich treasure,…
Researching Wyoming’s Boedekers, Truth or Legend?
A famous quote best describes the written lore of Lawman Hank Boedeker: “When confronted with the truth or the legend, print the legend.” Though not much is in print about Henry E. Boedeker, during the 1950s, campfire stories embellished tales of well-known past residents including Marshal Boedeker to impress visiting dudes at ranches across western…
3-7-77, On the Anniversary of Frank Little’s Murder
3-7-77. The only clue attached to Frank Little’s corpse swinging on a hemp rope from a Milwaukee Railroad trestle in Butte, Montana, on August 1, 1917. A Bureau of Intelligence agent in charge noted that the pasteboard placard warned the dimensions of a grave: 3-feet wide, 7-feet deep, and 77-inches long. If so, the warning pinned…