What
about the places in Circle of Hurt—are they real locations?
Riverby is real, yet fictional. The real Riverby is on Farm Road 100 twenty
miles northeast of Bonham and two miles south of the Red River in extreme
northeastern Fannin County. It apparently developed around a school established
for the children of tenants from the nearby Morgan and Goss plantations. By
1936, when the first population statistics for the community were reported,
Riverby had twenty residents and one business. Its population remained the
same, although it reported no businesses after the mid-1940s. From 1977 through
2000 Riverby reported a population of fifteen.
I had never heard of Riverby until about fifteen years ago
when I visited a team roping facility there and enjoyed a meal with the cowboys
on a Riverby Ranch.
My
fictional Riverby is a small town, but not that small. It is based on physical
characteristics of the town squares of Commerce, Cooper, and Honey Grove—maybe
a little Ladonia thrown in. It is called Riverby because it is by
the Red River. The fictional town in this book is geographically close
to where the real Riverby is.
Honey
Grove likely provided the primary inspiration, because the old buildings
downtown are truly unique. Also, some of the characters were inspired by people
I knew who lived in Honey Grove. I found these people to be fascinating in real
life and I hope they are equally fascinating in fiction.
Scenes
outside of town, (and there are many) are primarily based on the area around
Klondike in Delta County.
What about Prigmore’s General
Store? Is it real?
Prigmore’s
is loosely base on Silman’s on the downtown square of Cooper. It was a
hardware, grocery, and general supply store complete with lunch counter. There
is also a lot of Adrian Mercantile thrown in. This Panhandle store leaned
toward the rustic, cowboy, farming way of life where fresh hides were often
seen on the porch and the inside smelled of harness and tack and feed. You can
really get a feel for the place that is no longer there in Rivers Ebb.
Is there really a place known
as Hurt Hill?
Yes, there was and is, but you would need a guide (or me) to
find it now. I especially remember an old well hand pump in the front yard that
remained there long after the house was abandoned. My father leased land just
west of Hurt Hill late in his life and leased bottomland west of the hill when
I was a boy. I remember helping him (mostly watching and fetching) dynamite
stumps in the bottomland and planting cotton there. I picked a lot of cotton in
the field where pivotal scenes in the book take place.
This scene from Rivers Flow, my 2004 novel, also
takes place in those bottoms east of Hurt Hill:
The bottoms were different in daylight. Humidity, copperhead snakes,
and mosquitoes were more of a threat than panthers. It was still dark in the
deepest part of the woods, but Blue Bottom creek was dry enough for Jake to
hide in. Today, he was big brother, and he liked that role better than being
little brother. As he looked over the creek bank, Jake saw a small cottontail
rabbit hop up and sit between Tuck’s legs.
When he opened his eyes to look for Jake, Tuck saw the rabbit and
smiled. Jake looked toward his parents to see if they were watching. They were
not, so he began easing his way around the cotton field to tell them without
disturbing the rabbit. As Jake approached, Rance downed the last of his iced
tea and leaned back on one elbow. Mattie straightened the ragged quilt they
were using for their picnic then lay her head against Rance’s thigh. Jake held
one finger to his lips and pointed toward Tuck.
Mattie sat up to get
a better look. “Just look at that.” She pointed toward her son. A small
squirrel had moved to the other side of Tuck, sat back on its haunches, and
intently watched the small boy. Tuck paid little heed to the squirrel or the
rabbit, but seemed to welcome their presence. As he started toward the woods to
find Jake, the rabbit and squirrel followed. Jake looked at his parents and
shrugged.
Was there really a picker
shack and a farmhouse on Hurt Hill?
Yes.
I used to pick cotton (pull boles) in the bottomland just below it. I remember
migrant workers staying in that shack one of the years we harvested cotton
there.
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