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Erickson and Hank the Cowdog Find Their Happy Ending Following Texas Wildfires

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Tony Maples Photography

 

When last year’s wildfires struck the Texas Panhandle, we reported that John R. Erickson (author of the best-selling “Hank the Cowdog” children’s book series) and his wife had to flee their home built 30 years prior, including the bunkhouse from which the books were written. Everything was reduced to a pile of rubble.

His literature has taught Texas youth to read for over 30 years, and his chapter books have been a part of school libraries in the Lone Star State since the debut of Hank in 1982. However, Erickson is also a full-time rancher who incorporated stories from his experiences into his books. Hank is a self-proclaimed ranch security dog for M-Cross Ranch who fights tornadoes, angry bulls, and snakes, among other foes. Erickson himself has dealt with a fire or two, and in each story, he’s found a happy ending. However, in real life, Erickson was having difficulty finding the silver lining in the clouds of smoke that billowed up from the wildfires.

Cowdog’ Find Their Happy Ending Following Texas Wildfires

Photo: Facebook/FOX34 Lubbock

“I don’t think I could find a happy ending out of this,” he explained in an interview. “I like music that resolves, chords that resolve. How do you get the destruction of a home you love and the memories to resolve?” Erickson grew up in the Texas Panhandle and is a sixth-generation Texan. He made a living as a cowboy and wrote humorous stories as a side project for the Cattleman magazine. After running out of nonfiction concepts, he wrote a story as told from the perspective of a dog who was named for one at the ranch where he worked. The first run of “Confessions of a Cowdog” introduced the characters of Hank’s world, and from that, the project grew.

The series was adapted into the first book which Erickson self-published from his garage. He did all the promotion himself, visiting FFA conventions, schools, and local libraries. Since that first release, he has sold over 9 million copies of the “Hank the Cowdog” books, and they’re even translated into Spanish, Chinese, Danish, and Farsi. In the spring of 2017, Erickson celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Hank series, and then the wildfire consumed more than 318K acres, 1,900 hogs, and 2,500 head of cattle, and the Erickson home. That same day, a fire burning close to Amarillo also claimed the lives of three people.

Even prior to the fire being declared officially out, friends and family of the Ericksons were helping them mend fences and feed livestock. Donations of food and clothing began to find their way to them, and once news of the loss reached his fans, donations began to pour in from all across the Lone Star State – so much so that now a year later, he hasn’t been able to get the opportunity to open them all. One young reader who grew up on the series in Louisiana heard about the devastation and convinced his dad to haul a trailer of hay to the Texas Panhandle. Another from South Texas mailed Erickson a Dairy Queen gift card, saying to use it on an M&M’s Blizzard to try to cheer up. “It was just an overwhelming response. That was, I suppose, a big help in resolving the chord,” Erickson explained.

Erickson and ‘Hank the Cowdog’ Find Their Happy Ending Following Texas Wildfires

Photo: Facebook/Northridge Elementary – Frenship ISD

Still, a happy ending eluded him. Erickson was writing daily from a small shed that his son had moved to the property. A few months later, he attempted writing about Hank once again. In three weeks it was finished and his editor fast-tracked it. His 71st Hank the Cowdog book, entitled “The Case of the Monster Fire,” was released in March of this year – just one year following the wildfire that claimed his home and upheaved his life. The back pages of the book included real pictures of the 2017 wildfire and what happened on the Erickson ranch.

Erickson and ‘Hank the Cowdog’ Find Their Happy Ending Following Texas Wildfires

Photo: Facebook/Terra Vista Middle School – Frenship ISD

During the week of the Panhandle wildfire’s anniversary, the Ericksons were asked to leave their land once again due to extreme fire danger. Wildfires aren’t anything new to Texas and have consumed thousands of acres already this year. They haven’t rebuilt their home as of yet and reside in a double-wide on their ranch land. For Erickson, the thought of coming to terms with what he experienced and how it would affect his Hank stories was a part of his personal recovery and one that never strays far from his mind. He worried that the concept of the fire would pervade future books. However, in January of this year, using the laptop he saved from the house before the fire claimed everything, he began to write a new story. He wrote his opening, began typing through the characters’ typical repartee, and he found himself laughing as he went. He ended it the way the standard Hank books wrap up, by closing the case, and nary a mention of wildfire existed. After 12 chapters of this latest book, Erickson (and Hank) found a happy ending.