about the
author
Dan'l C. Markham
Dan’l Markham lives on a small farm with his wife, Colette, outside Mount Vernon, WA on Big Lake, where they restored a 1906 mill worker's cabin.
A fourth-generation Markham, as a deckhand, benefited from the salmon runs on the Lower Columbia River, as did his father and grandfather.
THE
SALMON
WARS
INSPIRATION
Having an intimate personal and transformative relationship with Christ for 55 years, it's no secret to those who know me well, who ultimately and completely inspires me. But I would be remiss not to note that it's the hardworking miners, fishermen, loggers, farmers, ranchers, and their families who I deeply admire and who possess those wholesome qualities our culture desperately needs. They feed us and supply us with everything we require.
A historical novel, The Salmon Wars is an untold account of armed conflicts on the Lower Columbia River, where gillnet and trap fishermen battled for control of the annual gold-rush value of salmon
harvests with the Washington State Militia facing off against Federal Troops on barren, wind-swept Sand Island. In gripping accounts, follow Deputy Federal Marshall Jacob Ladder as he pursues outlaws on
land and sea in the late 1890s. Peek into the sweeping scenery and everyday lives of men and women who become embroiled in this “Last Conflict of the ‘Westward Ho’ Movement.”
Dan’l Markham lives on a small farm with his wife, Colette, outside Mount Vernon, WA, on Big Lake, where they restored a 1906 mill worker's cabin. A clergyman, he is a fourth-generation Markham who, as a deckhand, benefited from the salmon runs on the Lower Columbia River, as did his father and grandfather.
He is the great-grandson of Ilwaco, WA, trap-fishing pioneer Dan Markham, who was a part-time town marshal and mayor, and was a central figure in the salmon wars of 1875 – 1915.
MORE
ABOUT
DAN'L
A former news editor for the Chinook Observer, Long Beach, WA, Dan’l authored numerous newspaper and journal articles and three books, including Contagious Love (Keep the Faith Publishing).
He was a major contributing writer of Man & the Sea (Midway Printery), which covers the hundreds of shipwrecks on and around the Columbia River Bar.
Samples of his radio cowboy yarns, called Country Up, can be found at countryup.org. He has seven daughters, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, with probably more to come! His dog, Rowen, a German Short-Haired Pointer, is his best friend.
Their favorite time of day is a walk (More like a run!) along Big Lake, keeping the 75-year-old writer in shape!
THE
JOURNEY
My earliest memories as a little toddler are sitting on my mom’s lap and dad’s lap, seeing a newspaper or magazine in front of me. Mary Ann and Ernest Markham birthed my love for reading, compulsively so, oftentimes. Yet it was my tough and demanding high school English teacher, Gloria Hause, who taught me how to write.
In college, my English professor, after reading some of my work, urged me to write about local history, local being the Lower Columbia River area, including Astoria, Oregon, and Ilwaco, Washington. As the news editor for the nearby Chinook Observer, Long Beach, WA., I wrote a series of articles on local shipwrecks which became a book – Man & the Sea ( Midway Printery).
It was following the first midnight of my soul, when my mega-church became authoritarian and cultic, that I wrote a series of articles for an Oregon weekly newspaper, that a representative of Albatross Books (Lion Publishing) read and consequently asked if I would write more, which I did, resulting in Albatross publishing, The Cultic Phenomenon – A Revealing Look At Ourselves. While working with the international disability ministry of Joni and Friends, I was inspired to write my next book, Contagious Love (Keep the Faith Publishing), about Christ’s clarion call to ministry to people affected by disabilities and poverty. The Salmon Wars is the third book in a trilogy following the journeys of Federal Deputy Marshal Cap’n Jacob Ladder. The author’s next tasks are to polish Marshal Ladder's prequels– Revenge and Redemption and The Territories.