“Nine days after my departure, Helena, Yelena, and Bryan start out on a typical 65-mile trek from the ranch to the post office, unaware of the tragedy awaiting them. There is a terrible automobile accident. Miraculously, Yelena and the baby survive, but Helen is killed instantly. Sorrow descends over the Monitor Valley, but still the Pine Creek Ranch endures. The Hage family soldiers on, hanging in a delicate balance between desert and mountain, between civil liberty and government Read More …
“A year after Wayne Sr. purchased Pine Creek Ranch there was a knock at the door – the U.S. Forest Service was calling to try to purchase the ranch and the water rights. The price they offered was half of what the Hages had just paid for it. Wayne’s refusal to sell brought the full forces of the government’s eminent-domain policies against Pine Creek Ranch. But the bureaucrats had squared off with one tough cowboy. Years of legal Read More …
“Decades later, several days’ ride north of Widow Smith’s place, 14-year-old Wayne Hage was fed up with mandatory church attendance enforced by his mother. One night he finally spelled out his good-byes on a piece of paper and ran away from home, dreaming of an adventurous cowboy life. He didn’t run too far, however, and soon signed on as a cowhand at his uncle’s ranch. Within a few years Wayne became a buckaroo at the PX Ranch, the Read More …