Born and raised in Missouri, Mark Lee Gardner’s lifelong fascination with history and the American West has dictated his entire writing career.
“We took off every summer … for the classic family vacation. My parents were both history buffs and I don’t think we ever missed a historic house or site,” said Gardner, who lives in Cascade.
“I grew up in the middle of Jesse James country and the Pony Express started there,” he said. “That Western imprint was instilled early.”
He started researching and writing about the American West in high school. College summer breaks were spent as a seasonal park ranger in such places as Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in southeastern Colorado and at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Virginia.
Gardner earned a master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Wyoming, and shortly after became the director of History Colorado’s Baca and Bloom Houses in Trinidad. Eventually, he embarked on a career as a historian and full-time writer.
It would have been scary to leave a secure government job for the life of a writer, but his wife, Katie, was a curator at the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs — a good job with benefits — so he could afford to pursue writing.
At first, it was a struggle, with small jobs that didn’t pay very well. Potential publishers rejected his book ideas until he decided to write a book about Billy the Kid. Jackpot.
Gardner employed the technique of narrative nonfiction, which is more fast-paced and entertaining than a straight dry history text, “but still factual and enlightening.”
His books include: “To Hell on a Fast Horse: The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett”; “Shot All To Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West’s Greatest Escape”; and “Rough Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill.”
His most recent book is “The Earth Is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation,” which True West magazine chose as the best nonfiction book of 2022. Currently, he’s working on a book about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.
His research has included scouring the Frank Waters papers at an Albuquerque library. Waters, an internationally famous author, hailed from Colorado Springs.
“He saw the Earp brothers as thugs,” not the glorified heroes of television, movies and books, Gardner said.
How long does it take to research one of his books?
“It takes way too long because I want to be very thorough,” he said. “My last book took five years. I go to the places, research archives, do the work. That’s the cool stuff.”
Most people have misconceptions about these iconic figures.
“Sometimes we have a popular image in our minds” that doesn’t reflect reality, Gardner said. “One big misconception is that Pat Garrett shot Billy in the back. People either love (Gen. George) Custer or think he’s a scoundrel. My job is to be even-handed and let the chips fall where they may.”
As a recognized authority on the American West, Gardner is often tapped as an on-air expert for national broadcast and cable networks, public radio and podcasts. He’s appeared on the History Channel, PBS American Experience, ABC World News, AMC, the Travel Channel, NPR’s “All Things Considered” and BBC Radio.
Accolades for Gardner’s work include an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award, two Colorado Book Awards, two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America — and now the 2024 Frank Waters Award from the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District.
“I am a great Waters admirer,” he said. “He deserves the acclaim he garnered over his career. I’m honored to get the award named for him.”
IF YOU GO
Mark Lee Gardner will be the keynote speaker at the Friends of the PPLD awards luncheon. It starts at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 1, at the Doubletree Hotel, 1775 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. Cost is $50 per person. For tickets: www.friendsofppld.org. Reservation deadline is May 24.
