Hatrack River Writers Workshop: American Southwest Info Needed

This is topic American Southwest Info Needed in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

I'm working with a newly contrived story idea that begins in the American SW. My MC is wintering on a ranch and hears stories about strange lights at night on a nearby butte. When I first thought this up, my knowledge of buttes, mesas, plateuas, and such is sketchy at best. Are buttes always at high elevations with vertical walls? If so, this won't suit my purpose.

Also there would have to be some kind of food and water source for small animals available, and something accessible to someone riding on horseback. Most of the pics I've seen in searching such things online show places similar to Devil's Tower. Not what I have in mind at all. Are there smaller buttes that might not be so glamorous that would suit my story setting? Something not on a tourist's most popular places to see? Would it be feasible to make a place like this up and still be able to term it a butte?

Any suggestions will be considered, and any knowledgeable info greatly appreciated.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

Where in the southwest is your story set? Teh location matters a lot.

Western Colorado and Eastern Utah is very much like the landscape you describe. High sharp cliffs as if the land was excavated by supernatural beings.
Closer to the border in Arizona and New Mexico the land is flat with random hills and mountains popping up like pimples on a face. The land is sandy with rocks of varying sizes scattered like pebbles tossed.
Then there are canyons and expansive valleys that cut through the center of Arizona, the ride down and up I-17 makes for a lovely site. Makes you realize how empty and beautiful our nation is.
Of course there is western Texas as well. Around Abilene and Midland the land is wide open, like Kansas except browner.

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

I was thinking maybe somewhere in AZ/NM area, though TX might not be too far fetched. I wasn't planning on not mentioning exactly where my story takes place. That's not important. Just somewhere in the SW. Preferably somewhere without snow or very little near winter's end.

My MC will be in the SW for a few days at best before heading home to the Midwest. So this would be about the end of winter and going into spring. Think mid to late March or early April.

Does that help?

Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :

To my knowledge the difference between a butte, mesa, and plateau is a matter of the size of the flat top. Buttes are the smallest (but they can still be pretty big, look up Monument Valley) on the largest buttes you could have a neighborhood. Mesas are about about city sized. (Some of them do have cities on them.) Plateaus are even bigger.

Buttes don't have to have vertical walls, they are often surrounded by sand that hasn't eroded away yet.

As to the food and water source: There are plenty of streams and springs. It may be pretty arid country but it's not the moon.

Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :

Yes it does. Go with flat land with rocks dotting the landscape like you see of pictures from the rovers from Mars. There will be sharp mountains and hills sticking up from the ground here and there, not strung in a line like mountain ranges. You'll see bushes but it will be mostly hard and dry dirt. Forget cactus's and Joshua trees. Those are further west.

Does that work for you?

Posted by Reziac (Member # 9345) on :

Nevada might be a possible too, a lot of it is more or less flat but cut up by long narrow ridges, like crepe cloth on a planetary scale.

Pretty much all SW butte and mesa country is high enough to have cool to cold nights year-round (it can get into the low 50s in spring and summer, and below zero in winter), pleasant to chill winter and spring days, hot summer days (90 to 110F is common, 120F isn't unknown) but little rain or snow. When it does rain, the runoff (which doesn't soak in very well due to the lack of soil) can be violent, but brief. You do NOT camp in a wash.

A lot of buttes have a steep dropoff only on one side, or kinda stand out from the surrounding plain like a dock from a warehouse. I gather you need the top to be reasonably accessable for surface travel? Roads in such country are typically scant to nonexistent, but there are usually jeep trails (often extremely rough) and game trails. Vegetation is normally thin grass and brush (which can be thick, and a lot of it stickery), trees are rare to absent. Lots of small animals and sometimes deer and antelope, tho they may not be visible to a townie's eye. Quail and dove and hawks, too. Snakes of various sorts; rattlesnakes are a hazard anywhere there's rocks or brush, especially in early spring. And bugs like nowhere you've ever been (wolf spiders, wind scorpions, regular scorpions, stink beetles, ants, etc, etc, etc. I live in the SoCal desert and it's the absolute most buggy place I've ever seen outside of a swamp. About all we lack are mosquitoes, but further east the deerflies make up for that.)

A good resource -- USGS topo maps and a faster interface for Google's notion of topo maps:

http://usgs01.srv.mst.edu/store3/digital_download/mapping_ap.jsp

Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :

Wow. Lots to think about here. I was wondering if there were some websites that would help me out, and I'm finding out it might not be easy to write about a place or locale I've never been before.

That you so much for all the wonderful info. My head is buzzing at the moment. This whole idea came after watching a couple of western movies last night that carried over into a dream about a man making an important discovery on a butte. But maybe I could change that to somewhere else. Hmmmm. Just thinking out loud and throwing some possibilities around. I've got the seed. Now to plant it and see if it takes root.

Thanks again.

Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :

I live in southern New Mexico and have travelled the southwest a fair bit (just got back off a road trip). If you've any further questions email me (this nickname @ yahoo.co.uk), I'm happy to help, and may be able to supply interesting pictures that could help you set the scene.