The Ghost of One Man Coulee

"The Ghost of One Man Coulee" by B. M. Bower is a short story that originally appeared in the January 1, 1913 issue of The Popular Magazine. This tale is a mix of Western and supernatural fiction, set in the early 20th century. The book revolves around the tale of a ghostly violinist who is said to return to an abandoned shack on moonlit nights to play a haunting melody, sparking a debate among a group of cowboys about the existence of the supernatural. In the story, the main characters are a group of cowboys known as the Happy Family, who challenge each other on the legend of Olafson, a violinist who perished in the snow while seeking the song of the north wind. The central plot intertwines their bravado with playful teasing around ghostly tales, ultimately leading to a daring bet where one member, Miguel, must enter the haunted cabin at midnight to retrieve stuffed olives left behind by Olafson. As Miguel ventures into the shack, the atmosphere thickens with suspense as the legend of the ghost becomes a tangible reality, culminating in a climactic moment that leaves the other cowboys both bewildered and frightened, thereby blending humor with a touch of eerie supernatural occurrence. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Bertha Muzzy Sinclair or Sinclair-Cowan, née Muzzy, best known by her pseudonym B. M. Bower, was an American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. Her works, featuring cowboys and cows of the Flying U Ranch in Montana, reflected "an interest in ranch life, the use of working cowboys as main characters, the occasional appearance of eastern types for the sake of contrast, a sense of western geography as simultaneously harsh and grand, and a good deal of factual attention to such matters as cattle branding and bronc busting." She was married three times: to Clayton Bower in 1890, to Bertrand William Sinclair in 1905, and to Robert Elsworth Cowan in 1921. However, she chose to publish under the name Bower.