WE’RE celebrating the holidays with Harold F. Cruickshank—creator of those great Aces of the Western Front’s Hell Skies—Red Eagle, Sky Wolf, and Sky Devil. But this holiday season it’s going to be a down home Christmas featuring Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folk stories from the pages of Range Riders Western (1945-1952) on Mondays and Fridays; and Cruickshank’s own recollections of homesteading life from The Edmonton Journal’s The Third Column on Wednesdays.

Cruickshank wrote 35 stories chronicling the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. The Baldwins are settled in to their cabin in Sun Bear Valley, but an old nemesis returns and a new couple arrive in the valley just as Mary is about to give birth.

From the Fall 1945 number of Range Riders Western, it’s Harold F. Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folks in “Spring Borning!”

New life visits Sun-Bear Valley, but not without bringing back an old terror for courageous Dal Baldwin to battle!

• Download “Spring Borning” (Fall 1945, Range Riders Western)

Be sure to stop back Monday when the Baldwins face the terrifying “Red Harvest!”