Intersection Column | Real Sisters Inspire Fictional Heroines

by Stephanie Landsem

Yellowstone has always held a special place in my heart because it is the setting of many of my most cherished family stories. Yellowstone is where my parents met and fell in love, and where all of my siblings and I were born. Our family lore was that of geysers and bears, favorite horses, elk hunts and camping trips in the wilderness. One much-recalled event was the massive earthquake that shook Yellowstone Park and the surrounding area in 1959.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that the Hebgen Lake Earthquake was almost unknown outside of western Montana. That’s when I started thinking about writing a novel about the night the mountain fell, the devastation wrought by wind and water, and the heroes and heroines who saved lives and brought hope in the darkness of disaster. It seemed like a great premise, but what I didn’t know was that this story would bring me the blessing of a closer relationship with my mom and her sisters—my aunts Mary, Joan, and Marlyn.

I started my research with my mom, who told me that not only had she and dad experienced the quake, but her sisters—Mary, Joan, and Marlyn—had also been in Yellowstone on that fateful summer evening. Little did I know that their memories would spark my imagination and be the inspiration for a story of sisterhood and resilience that became The Fault Between Us.

Mom and my aunts were happy to recount their adventures in Yellowstone Park in the 1950s.  My mom, who taught in one of the last one-room schoolhouses in Minnesota, told me of how she’d gone to Yellowstone one summer to work as a savage, the name for seasonal workers in the park. There she met my dad and fell in love. My heroine, Claire Wilder, began to take shape in my mind as Mom told me stories of her and Dad’s early years of joys and hardships. Although Claire is a fictional character, she embodies the strength of will, adventurous spirit, and strong faith of my ninety-year-old but young-at-heart mother.

My interviews with my aunts were delightful. Aunt Mary was my mom’s lifelong best friend even though she lived in Minnesota and her sister lived in far-flung National Parks throughout the United States. Mary explained what it was like to be a nurse in the 1950s and remembered in great detail the summer of 1959, when she’d taken a job at Mammoth Springs Hospital in Yellowstone. She recalled as if it were yesterday the night of the earthquake and the following days of rescues and uncertainty. Aunt Joan added her own experiences as a nurse and her paralyzing fears of bears and snakes. My aunt Marlyn kept me in stitches telling me of her teenage shenanigans—dating cowboys, hot-potting, and getting into trouble—when she was sent to Yellowstone to live with her big sister for the summer. All three of my aunts remarked time and again on how they admired my mom’s courage and spirit, and how much she and my dad loved each other through good times and bad.

In The Fault Between Us, the characters of Claire, Bridget, and Frannie are fictional, but the novel is chock full of things that really happened to Jeanette, Mary, Joan, and Marlyn—from bears on the porch to broken-down trucks to an earthquake that brought down a mountain. But most important, through the heart of this novel runs the spirits of my mom and her remarkable sisters—a heart of courage, faith, resilience, and the unbreakable bonds of family.

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About the Author

Stephanie Landsem writes historical fiction for women, about women. She's traveled the world in real life and traveled through time in her research and imagination. As she's learned about women of the past, she's come to realize that these long-ago women were very much like us. They loved, dreamed, and made mistakes. They struggled, failed, and triumphed. She writes to honor their lives and to bring today's women hope and encouragement. Stephanie makes her home in Wisconsin with her husband, three ferocious cats, and a neurotic dog. Along with reading, writing, and research, she dreams about her next travel adventure—whether it be in person or on the page.

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About the Book

In this gripping new work of historical fiction from the award-winning author of Code Name Edelweiss, three sisters fight for their lives and for each other amid the danger of a cataclysmic earthquake that rips Yellowstone National Park asunder.