About the Author

J. James Wheeling lives on the James Ranch in Durango, Colorado. The mountains surrounding her home are rich with stories of the miners, railroads, and ranchers who settled in the Animas Valley after the Brunot Agreement was signed with the Ute Indians in the 1870s.

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Raised on the ranch, she graduated from Colorado State University where she met and married her husband before living in five major American cities. They returned to the ranch to raise their children where she taught herself to be a chemical-free produce farmer. She homeschooled her daughters, ran the produce farm, was a 4-H leader, dance and swim mom and helped escort the local livestock judging team across Colorado. She works beside her husband and extended family to steward their land using regenerative practices as well as market grass-fed beef directly to the consumer.

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Her curiosity about American history has her dragging her husband to museums across the West in the off-season. Her best writing ideas come when she is working in her vast flower beds. She has two new son-in-laws and two corgis.