Jerome, Arizona

Bo Savage owned and worked the bar at the Jerome Mile High Saloon. Bo's world collapsed when Lilly, his alluring piano player, ran off with Max, a prospector married to a Yavapai-Apache Indian Princess, who was rumored to know the location of the fabled Dutchman gold mine.
   At night Bo would sit on his back porch overlooking the Verde Valley. After a bottle or two, he would swear he could hear Lilly calling him on the night winds, Lilly pleading for Bo's help.
   One evening a neighbor saw Bo jump from his chair, wave his arms and call: Lilly, what yellow mine?
    Bo cupped his ear, tripped and toppled off the porch head first, fatally breaking his neck.
    Lilly was never found.

Snickerdoodle Shop, Heber, Mogollon Rim, Arizona

 Mary Maude, a young widow formerly known as Evening Star and of Yavapia Apache descent, was known for her tasty pies and delicious snickerdoodle cookies. Mary opened a small shop off Route 260 on the Mogollon Rim, just outside of Heber, Arizona. She prospered, selling her baked goods and antiques from her store.  
         One rainy afternoon, Johnny Quicksilver came to town and tasted her pie, lingering with an enchanted Mary Maude. She fell in love with Johnny, who happened to be a notorious Colorado bank robber.
        A few years later Mary and Johnny died in a furious shootout during a bank robbery in Telluride, Colorado.
        Their gifted daughter, Ella Mae Quicksilver, survived and moved on to Roswell, New Mexico.

Dead Horse, Arizona

 Max Bueler and Evening Star, a woman of American Sinaguan Indian descent, lived on a mesa outside of Dead Horse. Max prospected, but they survived on nuggets that Evening Star brought from her ancestral yellow mine. The location known only to her and Max.
   One evening Max stopped at the Mile High Saloon, washing down a few with Lilly, the piano player, who was curious about Max's gold nuggets.
  Later in the week, Evening Star rode to the mine and saw two horses tied to a Pinon Pine, hearing familiar voices and laughter from the mine.
   Enraged, Evning Star took a tree limb, clamored up the mine slope and pried loose a large boulder, sending it crashing down to seal the entrance.
  In the dead of night, Evening Star packed her essentials and her nuggets and left Dead Horse. She rode east along the Mogollon Rim to start a new life.

Joshua Tree, California

 Lance and Willa came west to work as rangers in the Joshua Tree National Forest. Brimming with enthusiasm and hope, they bought a starter house in the high desert.
   But it never started.