John Stone

From Big Sky to the Badlands John Stone

I was born and spent my early years in the West River country of South Dakota. This story is built from the many hours I spent talking with my Mother and Father about two decades of their lives trailing sheep. In talking with both of them and actually revisiting virtually all the areas where they set up their base camps, I developed a sense of some of their plight-even fear at times-but mostly love for a life most people would likely not choose-if they had choices. This is a story about survival. It is not about beating the elements of life on the plains of eastern Montana and western South Dakota but learning to live with them. In the final analysis, my Mom and Dad truly loved their nearly 25 years of herding sheep. They loved their kids, their dogs, their horses, and probably even their woolies. When we talked so often of those days, their eyes showed that love. I have taught speech communication and public relations for different universities all over the world in my 56 years as a teacher and professor-and enjoyed it all from 3rd grade classes to graduate school. I have written several other books but never one anything like this-this book brought tears to my eyes and newfound love to my heart.