Choosing a setting by Dean L. Hovey

I recently visited Tuzigoot National Monument, in northern Arizona. It's a small US Park Service property compared to Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, and is off the beaten path. It contains ruins left by the Sinagua Indians in the 1100-1400 A.D. period, and has a treasure trove of artifacts being restored by a team of archaeologists. 

After waiting in line to speak with a ranger, I approached and asked, "Where would you hide a murder victim?" I could tell by the look on his face that he hadn't fielded that question before. After an awkward silence, I explained that I was a mystery writer looking for a future book setting.  His face brightened once he realized I wasn't a serial killer. He pulled out a map of the property and started marking it up.

"This dead end trail is a mile and a half long. We only get a handful of hikers a month who hike that trail in the winter. When the summer temperatures approach 100 degrees, hardly anyone goes back there."

I nodded and looked at a picture of the resident wildlife. "So, you might realize there was a dead body out there because the vultures would be attracted."

He was getting into it and jumped right in. "There'd be vultures, but the ravens and coyotes would probably be there first. Maybe the resident mountain lion or the bobcats might be drawn to it too."

I looked at the map and nodded. "Is that trail accessible by horse?"

"Horses aren't allowed on our trails." Then he hesitated. "But we close the entry gate at 4:45 and there aren't any residential rangers on site once we lock the visitor center. There's a trail along the river that's accessible by horseback from either the north or south and it links up with the trails inside the park."

I thanked him and walked a trail parallel to the dead end trail he'd indicated. As far as I could tell, there was no reason to use the other trail at all. The view wasn't great, just overlooking a marshy pond, and there were bushes and cacti that wanted to snag your clothing or scratch you. The signage warned there were rattlesnakes off the trail. (Having studied reptiles in college, I was reasonable certain that the rattlesnakes probably ignored the signs and crossed the trail when the rangers who erect the signs weren't looking.)

The ranger flagged me down when I returned to the visitor center. He went behind the counter and typed a password into his computer. "What's your name? Where can I find your books?"

After pulling up Stolen Past, the first Doug Fletcher mystery (published by BWL), he smiled as he read the blurb. "This is SO cool! I'll tell the superintendent and the other rangers. We'll probably each buy a different Fletcher mystery and pass them around."

I told him to look for a 2022 book set in Tuzigoot. He gave me permission to cite him as a resource in the acknowledgements, then added, "You might want to set a book at Montezuma's Castle National Monument. The ruins are only accessible by ladder. Visitors aren't allowed in them. BUT, if someone snuck in the park after hours and dropped a body into one of the pueblos..."

I thanked him, and added Montezuma's Castle to my list. It's now under consideration with Everglades National Park, Cypress National Preserve, Saguaro National Forest, Donner Camp National Historic Site, Little Bighorn Historic Battlefield, Big Bend National Park, and more.  There's a mystery to be solved in each of them. Now all I have to do is find the time to visit the locations and write the books!