Moulton awarded True Westerner of the Year

Candy Moulton was recently given the True Westerner of the Year Award by True West magazine.

She has written for True West for many years, sharing her own special insight into what it means to be a Westerner. Moulton said she feels honored and was very surprised to receive this kind of recognition. The author has received many awards throughout her career as both writer and film producer, but this one is kind of special, because it takes her back to her roots.

Back to the beginning

Moulton grew up on a small ranch east of Encampment, at Beaver Creek, with her family. She lived the western lifestyle with hard work, determination and a sense of pride in her family's western culture. She started writing the Encampment School column for the Saratoga Sun when she was 16. She wrote that column every week throughout the school year during her sophomore and junior year. During her senior year, she participated in a work study program so she worked at the Saratoga Sun four days a week, and went to school one day a week.

Moulton said during that time she thought she would be a secretary, but after working with Dick Perue she decided to go into journalism. She went to college and got her associates degree in journalism at Northwest Community College and then went to the University of Wyoming to complete her bachelor's degree. During summer break and vacations, she worked at the Sun. After graduation Moulton returned to the Saratoga Sun and became the editor.

Moulton said she learned a lot from Perue and owes him so much. She said she also worked with Starley Talbot, another person who became a published author. Moulton said Perue would rip through their stories with a red pen, so she learned early on the value of an editor.

Inspiration and influence

One of Moulton's favorite authors is Mari Sandoz. Moulton said she enjoys Sandoz' writing because it's about a connection to place and she's inspired by Sandoz and her sense of place.

Moulton explained stories are about people and what happens to them, but the place where it happened shapes everything in the story, especially in the West. She said the other thing which helped her writing and helped her understand the visual part of the story was doing film work. She said you have to think down to what she calls "the color of the story".

When she wrote her first book about Steamboat, the bucking horse, Moulton said she desperately wanted to know the details like what color shirts cowboys wore, what kind of saddle they rode, and what kind of clothes they wore. She said that all that color adds to the story and helps immerse the reader. She said it's a circle of impression that helps with that.

Moulton said she is also inspired by Will Bagley, a historian and author who recently passed away in Utah. She said he's the finest historian of her generation.

A few years ago she had the opportunity to work on a documentary about the Mountain Meadows Massacre which took place in Utah. She said she was the production assistant and her job was to find the location, find the people and the props, all of the set up for the camp, and more. It was filmed on the A Bar A Ranch outside of Encampment.

She read Bagley's book about the massacre for inspiration and to learn as much as she could about the incident. She said there was a scene in the documentary where the wagon train group is under siege by the Mormons and they sent this little girl out with a white cloth tied to a stick. Moulton said that in Bagley's book this scene was described in such detail, down to the type of cloth tied to the stick, that you felt like you were there, you could conjure up the image in your head. That is the connection between history and the color. She said it's the little details that builds a visual for the reader.

Fiction or non-fiction?

Moulton said she primarily writes non-fiction because there is so much to write. The true stories are so unbelievable there's no reason to make stuff up.

Moulton said her first book was co-written with her mother-in-law, Flossie Moulton. A friend of Flossie's asked her to write a book to go with a sculpture he had just completed of Steamboat, the bucking horse.

The next two or three books Moulton wrote were mainly based on her family history and things that were close to her. She's also been handed books that inspired her to write a story, such as Valentine T. McGillycuddy – Army Surgeon, Agent to the Sioux. The same person that handed her the McGillycuddy book asked her to write a book about Chief Joseph. The Chief Joseph book has won the most awards of all the books she's written. Moulton's research and writing of this book took six months, and took her on a camping trip to Oregon, sleeping on the ground, and seeing and feeling the places that Chief Joseph walked.

From pen and paper to screen

Moulton's journey into filmmaking began in 1999. She was on a press trip in Montana when she received a phone call from a company in Boston. They were looking for someone to do some content research for them because they were going to bid on the film for the new trail center in Casper, a film about the Oregon-California trail.

The film, "Footsteps to the West" recreates the lives of the pioneers as they traveled west. Moulton said she didn't know anything about film making. She said when they got to the point where they were going to start filming, she didn't know she was supposed to be getting all the props ready. The producer asked her where the props were and she told him she didn't have any, but she would get them.

She said she was thinking if she was home she would have had all the stuff she needed, but going that route wasn't an option. Fortunately she went to CY Antiques in Casper. She told the owner what they were doing and he let them borrow all the antiques she needed for props. Moulton had a couple guys help her and they loaded up a U-Haul truck with trunks and baskets, barrels, quilts and everything else they would have if they were in a wagon going west.

Moulton has produced several major films, including "In Pursuit of a Dream", a documentary about traveling on the Oregon Trail. This film involved taking a group of kids, many from the city, and traveling the trail for two weeks. She's also produced three other major pieces for the Trail Center. She did a stagecoach crossing the prairie, a wagon crossing the river, and the most recent one was "The Battle of Red Buttes".

Moulton also did a film called "Minuteman Missile on Alert". It's the story of the Minuteman missile program.

Moulton has been very involved with the "Packing the West" film series. The goal and intent of the project is to offer materials that teachers can easily incorporate into their lesson plans and tell the story of the people of the west. Moulton said the project centers around four kids, that travel back in time from modern times. They meet Jim Bridger, Bill Cody, William Bent, Matt Love, Standing Bear, a Native American that convinced a federal judge that Native Americans are people and have the same rights as others, and they met Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first American Indian to receive a medical degree.

Retirement? Probably never.

Moulton's newest book, "Sacajawea, mystery, myth and legend," is coming out June 2023. She said it was the hardest book she's every written because, although it's a great story, there is very little documentation about her. Moulton said there is not one word, nothing from Sacajawea directly. It is all from a man's perspective.

Moulton is semi-retired, but she already has another book in her head and she is also involved in a new film project for an interpretive center at Angel Mound, in Indiana. She is excited to work on this project where she will work with some Native American tribes that she's never been involved with before. Moulton is also the executive director of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. She's enjoying this role because it's taking her back to her roots.