In 1912, if you were searching for the most remote spot to settle in the U.S., your choice might be Wyoming’s Powder River Basin near Pumpkin Buttes.

Not a lot has changed in 94 years. The roads are still unpaved, although you only have to drive an hour to get to a paved state highway (50) that empties into Interstate 90 near Gillette. Coal-bed methane wells dot the landscape, sucking up natural gas embedded in coal seams formed from the decayed flora and fauna of the ancient inland seas. It’s fitting that the main byproduct of all this pumping is water, the most precious substance in this arid country. But it’s water that can’t be used because of its salinity. So it’s either dumped out on the ground or put in holding ponds until that future day when the oil companies, the State of Wyoming, and various federal agencies decide what to do with it.

Lester Dent might have enjoyed the distraction provided by the coal-bed methane drillers. He would have welcomed any distraction from his loneliness. Dent’s parents moved with Lester to a remote ranch near Pumpkin Buttes in 1912, and he stayed there until 1918 when Lester was old enough to move away.

Of course, distractions might have short-circuited his imagination, which was busily inventing new worlds. Only later, when he moved to the big city, would he get a chance to turn this into books featuring Doc Savage and other denizens of his imaginary worlds.

Dent fled Wyoming as soon as he was able. Artist James Bama, on the other hand, escaped from New York City in 1968 to move to Cody. He’s one of those people who are made complete by moving to the least-populated and most rugged state in the union. Gaydell Collier, a writer who ranches with her husband near Sundance, puts it this way: "I’m not from Wyoming, but I got here as quick as I could."

Bama’s career has gone through several stages. His illustration art has been collected into a 160-page full-color book, James Bama: American Realist (hardbound edition ISBN: 0-9723758-8-0, signed and numbered hardbound edition ISBN: 0-9723758-9-9). It was written by Brian M. Kane with Harlan Ellison and Len Leone.

--Michael Shay, Oct. 8, 2006