The history of the American West is in Loretta iMiles Tollefson’s blood. Her grandfather was born in Oklahoma Territory and spent his childhood moving west. His family ended up on a farm in the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula. Later, he cleared the forested land that would became the farm where Loretta was raised. After he died, she inherited a collection of first-hand accounts of the 19th century Pacific Northwest.
When Loretta moved to New Mexico as an adult, those reminiscences and her love of history went with her. In the Southwest, her interest expanded to include the many small towns, pueblos, and land grants she encountered during her 20-plus years as a public servant. Wherever she went in New Mexico, she was exposed to its tri-cultural (Native, Hispanic, and Anglo) experience and saw how much its past influenced the present.
After she retired, Loretta began to explore New Mexico’s history more deeply, honing the research skills she’d developed while obtaining two Masters of Arts degrees. The result is her Old New Mexico fiction—deeply researched, firmly and accurately set in the past, and brimming with historical characters.
