Author’s Notes

• Southern Utah University is a beautiful campus in Cedar City, Utah. The red cliffs of Cedar Breaks National Monument are visible to the east.
• Parowan, Utah and the towns of Florence, Gardiner, and Reedsport, Oregon do exist as described.
• The Umpqua River Lighthouse is as depicted, including the attendant museum, which does house the table described as having been salvaged off the shipwreck by George Perkins.
• The Heceta Head Lighthouse; the Keeper’s House, with its legends of Rue the Ghost; and the Hobbit Trail and the rarely accessible cavern leading to Tlowas’k beach do exist as described, but any caves beneath the lighthouse are creations of the author’s imagination.
• The West Shelter on Cape Perpetua is as described and does provide a breathtaking view of the coast.
• The wreck of the Nettie Sundberg was a real shipwreck on Heceta Beach in 1902, but the cause of the shipwreck as described in the novel is fictitious.
• The descriptions of the alleged theft of the Double Eagles from the San Francisco Mint by Walter Dimmick are historically accurate.
• The existence of the Knights of the Golden Circle is historically accurate.
• Any connection between the Nettie Sundberg, the theft of the mint, or the KGC as included in this story arise solely from the author’s imagination.
• Information regarding the Confederate Tribes of the Coos, Umpqua, and Siuslaw is accurate, although the characters in the novel are fictitious. Hopefully I have been able to treat these peoples with the honor and respect they deserve.
• The Three Rivers Casino in Florence does exist as described. During the planning, a proposal was made to name it Five Bears, after the legend mentioned in the story referring to the cliffs near Sea Lion Caves. The historical display of the Confederate Tribes described in the novel is well worth a visit to the casino.
• Information regarding the Spruce Squadrons of the Northwest during WWI is accurate and is one of the little-known stories of the war effort.