Where It All Goes Down
Placid, Wisconsin to Dog Hollow, Wisconsin and Back, 1871
We don't usually think of Wisconsin when we think of Westerns, but here we have two little western-style towns on our hands with this book, complete with sheriff. Well, Placid is big enough to have a sheriff, anyway—Dog Hollow isn't quite that fancy. In either place, though, we feel like we could use a set from a John Wayne movie as the backdrop.
Georgie's journey takes her from Placid to Dog Hollow, past Dog Hollow, and back to Placid. Along the way, she encounters good old western stock characters like doctors, sheriffs, general store owners, and cowboys. And of course, gun-slinging criminals.
The year is really important here, too, because 1871 is the year of the massive pigeon nestings, the great drought, and the really bad fires along the shore of Lake Michigan, all of which play a major role in Georgie's story, and all of which really happened.