L is for Leavenworth

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I"ll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book, West of Paradise.

Today we have L for Leavenworth, which is where both Jack and Katherine arrive after being sent into the past. The following scene takes place upon Jack's arrival...

     Jack came around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

     Horses and wagons and people who looked as if they had stepped straight out of an old history book paid him no mind whatsoever, going about their business. Wooden sidewalks, raised up away from the ground to allow for drainage, fronted the buildings, big boxy things, all clapboards with a smattering of brick here and there. The Planter’s Hotel sat on a rise above the Missouri River, an old keel boat grounded near the shore. Out in the middle of the river a newer steamboat was chugging away and come in from the west…he could hear the train.

For a second he just stared like a kid at Christmas who’d gotten the best present ever. He was really here…or there: Leavenworth, Kansas. And there on the corner across the street was the Silver Slipper, two doors down from the barber’s, just like Miss Adjani said.  

     Jack shoved his hat down on his head and walked across the street, trying not to stare at the wagons and horses jostling along the wide street. He stepped up onto the sidewalk and pushed the doors open. The smell of whiskey and cigars assaulted him.