Look just to the East and you'll see it, Taylor mountain. It's a mountain with a lot of history. Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Mary Sturgill met a man who is making sure that history will be shared with you and future generations.

Lynn Blatter had quite a retirement project; to compile the history of Taylor Mountain and the 25 homesteaders who settled the area. And today Almost 200 descendants of the families that lived here came to harvest the fruit of his labor.

There's gold in those hills. Just not the kind you think of. The gold here is the treasure of a rich history. And two years ago, Lynn Blatter set out to make sure that history was honored and preserved in this book and by this monument to the homesteaders that called Owendale home.

"I've always been interested in who these people were, cause my dad would always say they had a school house here and a church and so forth. And so I just always had an interest and thought, when I retire, this will be a good retirement project for me."

But the task at hand wasn't without obstacles. Lynn writes in his introduction that he had very little computer experience and didn't really know where to start his search.

"I found the minutes of the church meetings that were held here and the names and from that I went to the resources on the church website and ancestry.com and netdetective.com to find where people lived and their phone numbers."

Once he got the ancestral information from the families, he set out to tell their stories. "I got 24 of the 25 histories."

In the very first line of the book Blatter admits "This is not a literary work. It is simply a compilation of histories of the 25 homesteaders that I have been able to identify who settled in the Taylor mountain area in the 1910 and 1920 eras."

And not only has he collected their stories, he and his family have dedicated part of the land as a monument to their lives while on Taylor Mountain. "I just want this place to be kinda remembered cause those were the first people her and I hope everyone that comes here will appreciate this nice place and take care of it."

Don Christensen's parents homesteaded on Taylor Mountain, "It just makes me real proud that my parents were involved."

And the descendants who came to the dedication ... Now feel a greater connection to their past.

Jess Wilson's grandparents were homesteaders, "you can just feel that spirit of the people who were here and I think that they're with us."

If you would like a copy of the book, just give Lynn Blatter a call at 702-596-4143.
If you would like to see the monument, just drive up to Taylor Mountain, but take a pic nic and enjoy the day.