The Midnight Ride of Blackwell Station

Nine-year-old Raephy McDowell is NOT a snoop. At least, she doesn't think so. She's mighty curious, though. Who wouldn't be with talk of a brand new town where there's nothing for miles except for the Santa Fe Railroad Station? Mary Peace Finley weaves a light-hearted tale of curiousity, ingenuity, and adventure as a train station along with its inhabitants is moved in the middle of the night to become the center of a new town. The book is based on a true story of the founding of Lamar, Colorado. Mary Peace Finley is author of the award-winning Santa Fe Trail Trilogy-Soaring Eagle, White Grizzly, and Meadow Lark. Judith Hunt is the illustrator of many children's books including Prunes and Rupe "Endearing and deftly written, this new historical novel by Mary Peace Finley is a fun read-and ride. The characters sparkle like dew drops on prairie grass." - Nancy Oswald, author of Nothing Here But Stones adn Hard Face Moon "The Midnight Ride of Blackwell Station broadens the view of the view of how the West was won-not by wagon tracks alone, but sometimes by slight-of-hand and a little larceny." - Ava Betz, historian and author of A Prowers County History

Mary Peace Finley was raised in the southeastern Colorado town of Fowler on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad line, eighty miles west of Lamar. The haunting wail of train whistles and the click of wheels wove indelible patterns through her childhood. Mary has written four other historical novels set in southeastern Colorado and along the Santa Fe Trail in 1845-1849. Four decades passed between those stories and 1886 when Blackwell Station rode into Lamar at midnight. By then, wagons were being replaced by trains and wheel ruts by railroad tracks.Trains still ride the rails along the old Santa Fe Trail. The haunting wail of whistles and the click of wheels echo across the prairie, evoking memories and linking our lives to what has come before.