Capturing cowboy mystique

BROKEN BOW, Neb. — It started with cocktail party chatter in suburban St. Louis.

But this wasn't ordinary city slicker gossip. These were stories of cowboys and cattlemen, ropers and riders, drinkers and brawlers, ranch wives and war brides, odd neighbors and crazy bulls.

The tales hooked Craig Savoye, a college professor and author of unpublished novels and screenplays always on the lookout for a new book project.

For a guy from the suburbs, the stories were magical.

One thought kept running through Savoye's mind: “You've got to be kidding me!''

So Savoye traveled to Nebraska to hear firsthand the stories and yarns of the Sand Hills and the people who lived in the heart of the state's cowboy country.

His first stop was a master storyteller, the late Wayne Jenkins, a Callaway rancher and father of the cocktail party yarn spinner whose stories originally inspired Savoye.

Savoye returned again and again in search of Nebraska nuggets. Sometimes people didn't pan out. Sometimes he uncovered gems.

Now nine years and dozens of interviews later, he has published a book featuring 23 stories and character sketches, “Nebraska Stories: Tales of Cowboys, Ranchers, and Assorted Characters.''

The West looms large in America's history, culture and psyche, Savoye said.

“I don't know if it's watching Westerns at the movies or Marlboro cigarette commercials, but the cowboy mystique is hard-wired in us,'' Savoye said. “Many Americans are nostalgic for the ranch they didn't grow up on.''

Savoye said the stories and character sketches he collected tap that Big Sky longing. They are grounded in Nebraska, but the themes are universal.

Savoye struggled with how to write the stories he heard. Most were a series of disconnected 50-word anecdotes that didn't translate well to print.

His solution was to tell everyone's story in Jenkins' voice, although it morphed into a conglomeration of voices, and Jenkins never met most of the people profiled in the book.

“Wayne (Jenkins) gave the book its heart and soul,'' Savoye said.

Savoye said he can still hear the echo of Jenkins' twang in “Annnnnnnway ...” — a favorite transition voiced in a distinctive, arched pitch.

Savoye said his Nebraska trips exposed him to a world and people he didn't know existed.

Visiting the Jenkins ranch, Savoye sometimes tagged along when cattle were moved to different pastures.

“For someone like me, who's driven by the clock, to get lost in the hills for hours and be so connected to the land is wonderful,'' he said. “Something about that feels real and normal, and the rest of our existence feels a little contrived.''

Savoye was the stranger invited into homes — or into pool games at the local bar — for interviews with people who had only a faint understanding of what he was attempting to do.

“But they wanted to be helpful, so we'd have a cup of coffee and they'd tell stories,'' Savoye said. “They're natural and come straight at you.''

Savoye, 53, said he was motivated by a desire to preserve stories that document, in a lighthearted manner, a way of life that is both quintessentially American and fast disappearing.

“Whether forged by war, the Depression or simply the American experience of their time, I fear their breed will never come this way again,'' Savoye said. “They are some of the finest people I've ever met.''

Contact the writer:

444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

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