By Marlene Brown
The Palmer Lake Historical Society (PLHS) monthly membership meeting at the Palmer Lake Town Hall on Sept. 19 featured guest speaker Mike Torreano, presenting an author’s talk titled Cowboy Stories. Torreano has a military background, and his focus is on American history and the Old West. His most recent book, Fireflies at Dusk, was released in November 2023 and is set during the Civil War era—a time when the Old West did not have any laws, just the Code of the West.
Torreano has won two Firebird Book awards for Western fiction and historical fiction. He has taught journalism and English at the Air Force Academy and the University of Colorado.
His traditional Western style is inspired by Zane Grey’s books that he began reading in the fifth grade. He said he has always loved the cowboy life. He tries to write his stories with the Code of the West in mind. Some of the code values are:
- Doing what’s right.
- Taking responsibility for one’s actions.
- Working hard.
- Showing respect.
The Old West is a culture. As Tom Mix, a silent-film actor from the early 1900s, said, “The Old West is not a certain place, in a certain time, it’s a state of mind. It’s whatever you want it to be.” Learning to live a life according to the Code of the West can surely help many learn that there are consequences to one’s actions.
There was a lively discussion of the TV shows, films, books, and songs that have come from the Old West with a question at the end: What can you do to keep the values of the Old West alive?
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The Palmer Lake Historical Society is a nonprofit 501C3 and holds regular meetings on the third Thursday of the month. Membership information and future presentations can be found at palmerdividehistory.org
Marlene Brown can be reached at marlenebrown@ocn.me.
Other Palmer Lake Historical Society articles
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, September 19 – Author focuses on Old West (10/2/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, June 6 – Book launch (7/6/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, May 18 – Colorado’s Rosie the Riveter (6/1/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, April 18 – Trolley cars, past and future (5/4/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, Mar. 21 – Presentation on Monument Cemetery (4/6/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, Feb. 15 – Union Printers Home: past, present, and future (3/2/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, Jan. 18 – Annual Potluck and Membership Meeting (2/3/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, Dec. 17 – 90th Annual Yule Log Hunt (1/6/2024)
- Palmer Lake Historical Society, Oct. 19 – History of Glen Eyrie presented (11/4/2023)