In the old west and even in today's time frame you will still find
some people that are partners. Some of the partnerships last a
short while with others from the time they are first made until the
after life. The characters in this novel are factious names but the
two men are buried side by side with the remarks still readable on
the tombstone. The store about this long life friendship was a well
known story by one of the men that knew the partners of this
story.
These stories took place in the No Mans Land, or spitting distance
of it, that is now the Oklahoma Panhandle. Later in the novel is a
section of the history of the area if you might be interested in
reading it first.
At one time for a period of years the area belonged to no state,
territory, or country. No Man's Land was 37miles by 168 miles and
a hard, unforgiving land, domain of the terrible Comanche time out
of mind. In winter, murderous northern winds howled down out of
Kansas and Colorado to freeze men and animals. For the rest of
the year the winds were generally southerly, ranging all the way
from gentle breezes to shrieking gales that drove great clouds of
dust before them.
It formed a long, narrow rectangle, altogether about 5,700
square miles. Once this emptiness had been Spanish, split up into
three massive land grants, and then it had been, in name at least,
part of the Mexican province of Texas (Tejas). When the United
States annexed Texas, prior to statehood, this northern strip was
cut off to comply with the Slave State-Free State balance
mandated by the Missouri Compromise.
The 37th parallel had been established as the southern boundary of Kansas and Colorado, but the northern frontier of Texas officially stopped at 36 degrees 30 seconds latitude. In between the two borders lay about 34 miles of space unassigned to
anybody at all. To the east, the western line of the Cherokee
Outlet was drawn at the 100th meridian, Congress officially
referred to the area as the 'Public Land Strip.' Out West, though,
men seldom called it anything but No Man's Land. The Santa Fe
Trail passed through part of it, winding down out of Kansas,
bound southwest for Santa Fe.
