Carson City author’s tale of West set in Comstock Lode’s bust times

Set in 1880s Virginia City, “Showdown in Six-Mile Canyon” is a fictional book by a Carson City resident that draws on his own experiences and love of mining areas.L. S. Watson Jr., a Vietnam-era Navy veteran who moved to Northern Nevada in 1991, became intrigued by mining era places while living in California and visiting the Calico ghost town in the Mojave Desert region.“I’ve always enjoyed mining history and western history,” said Watson before delivering a reading and giving a talk on his book at the Carson City Library auditorium Tuesday. He said he was enthralled when he visited Nevada’s Virginia City and the area even before moving here.Part of his book is based on that and part on his own experiences in 1968 Vietnam when he was badly wounded near Da Nang, but survived.“They sent me to Camp Pendleton until I recovered, then to Barstow,” he said, which isn’t far from Calico. He worked at the Marine Corps supply center there. He then spent 20 years in the medical field in California, then moved to Nevada and got into the painting contracting business. Watson said his book, which took two years to write, was published about a year ago. Watson’s protagonist, a wounded Civil War veteran named Luke Wilson, faces his ultimate challenge near Virginia City in Six-Mile Canyon.