A Bride in the Bargain (44 page)

I found accounts of men who climbed trees the way Joe did—with no more than an ax and a springboard. They also thought nothing of jumping from ridiculous heights to get down from their work or to escape a falling tree.

One thing I left conspicuously out was the spiked (caulked) boots that lumberjacks are famous for wearing. I looked and looked but could never find reference as to when spiked boots were first used. In all the research I did, they were never mentioned in any of the early records I found. So I left them out. If I am in error, please accept my heartfelt apologies.

I couldn’t convince my sister that they really did have redwoods in Washington. They weren’t like the ones in California or Oregon, but they definitely had them. So I promised I’d put a disclaimer in for the rest of the doubting Thomases out there.

One of the things I found peculiar was the complete lack of information about what happened between Mercer and the fellows who paid three hundred dollars for brides that never showed. Nothing is recorded—at least not that I could find. So I guess we’ll just have to use our imaginations.

Last, I had to bend the timeline a little to suit my story. The real Mercer girls started arriving in Seattle in May 1866. But if I’d done that, then Joe and Anna would’ve had to go to town for a Fourth of July celebration and I just did a Fourth of July thing in my last two books. I didn’t want to do another one. Nor could I afford to have Anna go to town and find out about Bertha.

So I made Anna’s boat land in Seattle on July 8. Not at all accurate, but necessary for my story. The rest of the Mercer-girl timeline was as close as I could get to being accurate.

All in all, I fell in love with Seattle. If you ever have a chance to go, please do. The bluest skies and greenest hills you’ll ever see really are in Seattle.

Blessings, Deeanne

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