A Study in Scarlet, Pt. 2: Buchanan's Blunder

[sanguinity]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet, Pt. 2
Title: Hope's Buchanan's Blunder
Author: sanguinity
Rating: G
Summary: It’s almost like Jefferson Hope didn’t know a thing about 1860 Utah.



"Carson City! What's wrong with this man of your'n, running for Carson City with Camp Floyd just there?"

"Have pity, her pa just died! Her man may come yet."

"And where will he try taking her this time, the moon?"

"Ems, hush.”

“Hrmph. Listen, girl, when that man come back, you ride south. What's that Army even here for, else?"

 

Author's Notes: Command, size, and locations varied, but most years from 1857 onward, the U.S. Army maintained a not-entirely-friendly presence near Salt Lake City. From 1858 to 1861, Camp Floyd was the single largest concentration of army troops in the U.S., and by the time you threw in all its civilian support, was fully half the population of Salt Lake City. It would have been only a hard day-or-so's ride away, if Lucy and Jefferson changed horses.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Sounds like yet another case when the woman would have made the better decision.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Embarrassed to say I knew absolutely nothing about the Utah War - just been doing a bit of Googling. It’s almost like Jefferson Hope didn’t know the first thing about 1860 Utah. ACD really didn't believe in doing research, did he? ^^"

[sanguinity]

I didn't know about it, either, not until I spent a summer researching the history of the Utah Territory for this fic here. (Selected bibliography, if you enjoy such things.) The Utah War was a few years before the period I was focusing on, but it set the tone for a good deal of what was to come.

No, Doyle didn't believe in research, bless him. The first time I read the Mormon section of STUD was painful, but this time, actually knowing a chunk of things about miners in the Utah Territory (and later, once it became its own place, Nevada)...? There is very little about Jefferson Hope's actions that make sense. Why would a miner head farther inland to raise capital? And not just farther inland, but right into Mormon Country, when the Mormons' only use for miners was as a source of much-needed cash-money?

[sanguinity]

Mm. She and her pa were locals; it's hard to believe that they didn't know the U.S. Army had a huge, not-sympathetic-to-Mormons encampment just forty miles south.

'Course, it's hard to know how Jefferson Hope missed it, too, but I suppose he was spending a lot of time in the mountains. Or something.

[debriswoman]

Thank you
I had no idea about the history of the place...fascinating detail

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Nice history lesson in the ficlet and the comments. So the location of the Rio Grande is just the tip of the iceberg.

[sanguinity]

Oh, very much so! Not to mention stuff like, oh, the Ute exist. Which shouldn't be that surprising, given that Utah was named after them. ;-)

(Although I admit that it's unfair to ding him for these things. I doubt he did much more than glance through an encyclopedia article, and 9th. Britannica doesn't mention most of this.)

[sanguinity]

I'm glad you enjoyed that! I thought the Utah Territory was pretty fascinating, the summer I was reading about it, but then most places are when you go deep enough.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Considering that Doyle's description of the KKK in FIVE probably set a bunch of actual klaverns howling in derision, my first impulse is to blame the pulp-writer whose research probably ended at EXCITING TALES OF THE AMERICAN WEST FOR RED-BLOODED ENGLISH LADS.

Now if John Ford had ever filmed STUD there'd have been a massive rewrite.

[sanguinity]

Yeah, most of what he wrote about the States makes me tilt my head, and it all goes much better if I just give up and pretend it's all set on the moon. Not the actual moon, of course, but the 19th c. SF version of the moon, the one with atmosphere and jungles and moon-people.

I've managed to avoid most of John Ford's ouevre, so I have very little basis on which to speculate.