Earl Batten

An Immigrant tunneled into America in 1950. His Preacher Father drove the family under the Detroit River into Michigan. 5 years later they rode the train to the frontier at Walla Walla, Washington. Next was Ft. Washakie, Wyoming, where he arrived in the back of a pickup truck on the Wind River Indian Reservation. With the power vested in him as a Preacher's Kid and with a Foreigner's vision like deTocqueville, he roamed the Rocky Mountains. He had a lot to learn from his Shoshone Friends and was as curious about them as they were about him. They taught him to hunt, fish and swim along Trout Creek and the Little Wind River. He became the School Janitor. He played baseball but flunked basketball. He met the Shoshone Game Warden, Joe, and a long term game of cat and mouse began. He survived the intrigues of the playground and the long bus rides. Then, he fell in love. He wrote about the laughs on the Wind River Reservation in "Out on the Rez" and "Back on the Rez."

Naturally, he became a Geologist. When he told his stories to his grandchildren in Park City, Utah, they asked for more details so he wrote the humorous adventure "The Moose Goes Missing." In it, "Grandpa" is recycled when his Grandchildren become Amateur Sleuths in Park City, Utah, and need advice to explore the miles of abandoned underground mines.

Now retired on Fidalgo Island, Washington, "Grandpa" has continued his Wind River Reservation research with "Joe and the Preacher's Kid" which adds historical and political footnotes to the "Out on the Rez" series.