BOB BALCH – författare

Jim Bob Justice is a fourth generation Texan who has spent most of his life along the Brazos River in Texas. Using an old map that was given to his grandfather, Judge Judd Justice, by his client, a Comanche Indian woman, and a tapestry map from the Vatican on loan for an exhibition which Jim Bob visits in Lubbock, Texas, he makes an archeological discovery inside a great rock mound on the Brazos upriver from his home place which shocks the world. This story which spans several centuries is historical fiction which will both entertain and educate the reader and can be read in about two hours making it excellent reading while traveling or for a quiet evening at home.

In this humorous collection of stories about incidents that occurred in and around gas stations, the author captures moments in time that tells the American story about our fascination and love for gas stations. With the advent of the horseless carriage at the beginning of the 20th century, the mass production of the Model T, and the hunger of the American public for this new form of transportation, gas stations sprung up all over the country to satisfy the thirst of these new contraptions. With the end of World War II came an unprecedented demand by the American public for new automobiles, gas stations to service them, and highway systems to accommodate this craze. Americans are a mobile society who love their vehicles, and the broad expanse of our great nation demanded high performance, luxury, and looks for their vehicles.

The automobile liberated the average American, and our country would never be the same. As the reader turns the pages of this book, it wont be long before he or she is reminiscing about his or her own experiences in and around that great American

Establishment, the gas station, and thats what the author intended for this book to be all about. It also is a tribute to the men and women who fought in World War II and preserved the freedoms that we enjoy today in this great country.

So what are you waiting for America? Crank her up, and lets get started on this journey back in time.

In the year 1919 Bob Ray Gilbert and Emil Marcy, farmers, neighbors, and friends, who live along the Red River in an area west of Burkburnett, Texas, are faced with a decision which will change their lives and the lives of several of their friends who join with them in their quest to protect their farms and mineral resources from the madness all around them as the oil boom surrounds their farms, and a city of 10,000 springs up almost overnight at the south end of a mile long toll bridge over the Red River which becomes known as Bridgetown. This is their story, and it has an unusual twist when Emil Marcy tells the group a secret told to him many years before by his famous cousin, Captain Randolph B. Marcy, U.S.A., who led the Expedition of 1852 to find the head waters of the Red River in order to establish the boundary line set forth in the Treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain. Oil like gold brings out the worst and the best in men. We will see some of both as this story unfolds. Hopefully, the reader will be both educated and entertained as the oil boom at Bridgetown on the Red comes to life in the pages of this book. World War I has ended and thousands of doughboys converge on the area looking for jobs in the oil boom. Millionaires are made over night as gusher wells burst forth their black gold from within the earth. Greed, dishonesty, and fraud always accompany money, and there is plenty to go around in Bridgetown. How will Bob Ray Gilbert and Emil Marcy fare in this fast paced new world which their farms and lives become thrust into overnight? If you read the book, you will feel good at the end because truth and honesty win out over larceny and greed. As echoed by Bob Ray Gilbert at the end, God Bless America.

A great treasure of the French people was brought to New Orleans from France in 1792 by the La Porte family. This treasure ultimately ends up in the hands of Waco Baptiste, whose mother was a Wichita Indian and whose father was a French trader. What Waco does with the treasure will certainly entertain and educate the reader. The book is divided into two parts. The first covers the period from 1750 to 1876. The second part jumps forward to 1995 through 2005, and follows the footsteps of Sara Wind Cloud, a young woman of the Wichita tribe, who makes a great discovery during her studies as a history major at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. Her discovery ultimately leads her to the treasure of the Wichita which Waco Baptiste swore in an oath of secrecy to his wife, Julian La Porte, to protect at all costs. Waco Baptiste certainly accomplished his mission, and Sara Wind Cloud brings closure to the mystery in a manner which the reader should find both fair and honorable to all parties.

In this, his fifth book, Bob returns to historical fiction with the story of a young Keechie Indian thrust into the world of the white man following his capture during a historic battle on the upper West Fork of the Trinity River. He falls in love with an Irish beauty who has emigrated from Ireland with her family, and who brings with her a great secret entrusted to her by the head of the McMalley clan. Their love story is one of the many stories of life on the Trinity in the 19th century. Bob hopes you learn as much about this great river as he did in writing this book, and that you will be entertained as you turn its pages.