The Story

• Detailed Plot Synopsis (PDF format)

A Christmas classic is reborn in the fictional town of Sacksaddle in the New Mexico Territory of the 1890s, where three cultures collide in a world of range wars and land grabs.

Judge Ethan Scrawlett, the ruthless cattle baron who despises the Mexicans and Native Americans with whom he has to share “his” valley, is a vengeance-obsessed loner right out of The Searchers—a man who stalks the streets of Sacksaddle like a wolf tracking its prey. His opposite number is Durango, the dance hall hostess whose shopworn glamor suggests the Marlene Dietrich of Destry Rides Again or Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke. The big-hearted owner of The Three Kings saloon, her cantina is the gathering place for a makeshift family of dance hall girls and fun-loving cowpokes. It’s easy to imagine how the colorful supporting cast might have been filled during the Golden Age of Westerns—from Walter Brennan and Henry Fonda to Thomas Mitchell and Andy Devine.

The moving story parallels the Dickens original, but mixes in some big surprises. Set in the magnificent landscape immortalized by John Ford, A Cowboy’s Carol unfolds in many of the settings he made famous: saloon, marshal’s office, Boot Hill. And while it doesn’t take a lifelong devotion to John Wayne, Gene Autry or Hopalong Cassidy to love A Cowboy’s Carol, there are special dividends for anyone even a little familiar with the greatest Westerns: Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, Red River, Shane and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. And like Dickens’ original, A Cowboy’s Carol also ends with a child’s blessing—only this time from the Apache tradition: “May your days be good and long upon the earth!”

Some of the characters who relocate from Dickens’ original to find a new home on the range include:

• Judge Ethan Scrawlett, the Scrooge-like cattle baron who runs the town of Sacksaddle;
• Little Sparrow, a young Apache girl fighting for her life against tuberculosis;
• The Ghosts:
  • The Old Timer, a cantankerous old chuck wagon cook, Scrawlett’s link to his lost past;
  • El Fantasma del Navidad, a magnificent Mexican vaquero, his guide to the riches of life in the present;
  • The Ghost With No Name, a shadowy gunman in black, the grim messenger from beyond the grave;
• Caleb Filtch, a scheming attorney, late partner in the firm of Scrawlett & Filtch;
• Toby, a simple-minded stablehand, the Cratchit-like target of Scrawlett’s wrath;
• Deputy Matt Cloud, Scrawlett’s good-natured nephew, detested by his uncle because of his Navajo blood and his Mexican wife;
• Solomon Jinglebob, the warm-hearted rancher who raised young Scrawlett like a son;
• Young Ethan, Scrawlett as a rugged, handsome young cowhand on the Fiddleback Ranch;
• Concepción, a beautiful Mexican aristocrat, the love of young Ethan’s life;
• and others, including a charitable Quaker, Matt’s young Mexican wife, and an unctuous undertaker.

But A Cowboy’s Carol enhances the familiar story by including some fresh and uniquely Western characters:

• Dusty, the weather-beaten saddle tramp who spins the story;
• The Sons of the Sagebrush, the on-stage band, a tight-harmonizing group of singing cowboys;
• Durango, the beautiful, earthy owner and entertainer of The Three Kings Saloon—a major singing and acting role;
• Doc, the tippling resident philosopher of the town;
• Durango’s Girls, the singer-dancers of The Three Kings.

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