Gary S. Shellhorn — hydrologist, westerner, and teller of old western tales.
I am a retired water resource scientist who had a 40-year career as a watershed hydrologist, an environmental consultant and a land use planner. Most of my career was spent working for the federal government on Public Lands, Forest Service lands and National Wildlife Refuges. I have lived west of Denver almost all of my life, residing in seven of the twelve western states.
I claim Prescott, Arizona as my home. Not that I lived there the longest, but that is where I went to school and more or less grew up. Arizona was one of the last great western frontiers and, as I would learn later in life, at the heart of some of the great old west tales.
My first book, Tales of a Tracker: The Saga of Jacob Bartlett, is my attempt at characterizing some of that Arizona history through a character I created to help explain the history of the old west.
I have found writing about the old west to be fascinating, cathartic, and extremely educational. It has led me to visit many interesting locations in the west. My research, and reading other authors’ tales of the old west, has brought new interest to places I knew in the past and never fully appreciated. It is amazing how many roadside historical markers have enriched my sense of place and past. In my travels around the west I am always on the lookout for the historical reference.
So I can only hope that if you have stumbled onto this website, or were directed here by someone or something, you will find something that will entertain you, educate you — or infuriate you.
— Gary
