This article reveals the touching true story that inspired the creation of the "man on the mountain" storyline in "HOPE'S HORSE: The Mystery of Shadow Ridge," Strawberry Shakespeare's latest adventure novel for kids ages 9-12.

The story of 12 year old horse whisperer Hope Miller and her wild horse, Tango, in my new children's novel, HOPE'S HORSE & The Mystery of Shadow Ridge, would not be complete without the scary "man on the mountain" -- 78 year old Don Stevenson. Stevenson is a fictional creation, but the idea for this character was inspired by a true life story. Let me tell you a little about a young man named David Steeves and how his story influenced the writing of this novel.
 
In 1957, at the height of the Cold War era, David Steeves was a 23 year old US Air Force Lieutenant who was accused of selling his Lockheed T-33A trainer jet to the Russians. Although Steeves claimed that his plane crashed in the Sierras while he was on mission, the plane could not be found to corroborate his story. The fact that it took him two months to make his way out of the wilderness after the crash, only added to the speculation.

The loss of his credibility and reputation resulted in the end of his marriage, his resignation from the Air Force, and alienation from his Air Force buddies, friends and family. Steeves spent the rest of his short life searching for the wreckage, in endless hikes and flights over the mountains where he crashed. He died in 1965, at the age of 31, never having found the plane and proven his innocence.

In 1977, twenty years after the original incident, incredibly, a troop of boy scouts from Los Angeles stumbled upon the wreckage of a plane in the mountains, which was later identified by its serial number as Steeves' plane. Though vindicated posthumously, it was too little, too late to heal a young man's broken heart and restore his position and reputation during his lifetime.
 
When I first heard about this story, it touched me deeply and I never forgot it. I wished that Steeves were still alive when the plane was found, and imagined how relieved and healed he would have been by the good news. But of course, that could never be. So when I wrote HOPE'S HORSE: The Mystery of Shadow Ridge,  a contemporary tale for young readers, I created Don Stevenson, the old "man on the mountain," whose life is about to change when Hope and Tango discover a strange metallic object buried on Shadow Ridge.