Suppose it's not a person's life stories you want to highlight, but stories surrounding a place? Many of us have places that hold special meaning for us--a family farm, a summer home, a city neighborhood or rural mountain ranch. Here are three examples of memoirs in which the place--not the person--is the star.
Dust, the Dance Hall, and Dutch Oven Dinners
This book is more pictures than stories; it tells of generations of a family who gather together every year at the family ranch in Southern Utah. We did some historical research on the origins of the ranch before the family bought it, and added that to some family stories to create a short but engaging narrative. Decades worth of photographs were added to round out the story and create a memory-jogging volume for the family.
In the Good Old Summer Time
This book, which is a transcribed interview with the family matriarch, tells the story of a beloved multi-generational family cabin in the mountains. The extraordinary turn-of-the-last-century photos were taken on site by Ralph Savage, son of famed western photographer C.R. Savage.
The family kept the original receipts from the building of the cabin in 1909.
Grandpa McNaughtan had a Farm -- Recollections of the Rockin' E Ranch
This book, completed several years ago, is an excellent example of how a book can preserve the history of a place that has changed over time. The stories of this family farm, sold for development, have been saved for future generations.
