Random stop near Sidney results in book series

SIDNEY -- What started as a random break at a rest stop has grown into a book series with a second due. 

Zachary Lane and his wife, of Lincoln, stopped at the rest stop about a mile east of Sidney while on vacation. They were vacationing and on their way to Estes Park. While at the rest stop, he learned about some local history and became inspired to write about it. That is how his passion for writing and history met. 

He was in Sidney Friday for a book signing. He has one book series published and a second written with publishing pending.

“The simple start was being on vacation and stopping at the rest stop in Sidney, just east of Sidney, and seeing information on the city, and Sidney Barracks and all of that. And how troops came out after the Civil War to guard the railroad,” Lane said. 

He returned to the Sidney area several times, researching the geography as well as the history. He acquired the book "Lynchings, legends and lawlessness" for research.

“There’s a lot of history here, in and around Sidney. The author of this particular book has an earlier one. His name is Loren Avey, and he’s from Sidney. He’s got a big book. It’s called “Lynchings, Legends and lawlessness. ”I got a copy of that book, use it for some of the resource,” Lane said Friday afternoon.  

Lane has a series of historical fiction books out with the Old West of the Panhandle as a backdrop. 

He has visited Sidney and Cheyenne County several times. His stops include Boot Hill Cemetery, and a read of the placards. He learned about a person repatriated who was found in his grave wrapped in barbed wire. 

The characters in his books are taken from history. 

“Jesse Jones is the principal character in this book. He came with the Army to Fort, well, at the time was Sidney Barracks. His weapon of choice is a LeMat pistol, which he got off a Confederate officer during the Civil War. The LeMat was an officer’s pistol, and it’s a nine-shot revolver, and it has a shotgun barrel underneath the main barrel," Lane said.

He said the shotgun barrel takes a 10-gauge round.

His second series focuses on two friends making their way through the Underground Railroad into Nebraska.

His books can be found on Amazon.com