Baron R Birtcher (Courtesy photo: Baron Birtcher)

When Baron Birtcher started his first novel in 1999, he didn’t expect anything to come of it. 

“It was just something I always wanted to do. I was in the music business before being a writer, and I really just always wanted to write a book,” said Birtcher. “I was fortunate enough to get an agent and a publisher and get my first book published, and I fell in love with the whole process.” 

Now, Birtcher’s latest novel, “Knife River,” has earned one of the nation’s most prestigious literary prizes: The Will Rogers Medallion for Western literature. Birtcher will be honored at the Will Rogers Medallion award ceremony in Tulsa, Oklahoma in October.

“It’s so humbling to know that there are literally thousands of books published every year and to get through the ‘sifter’ and be recognized among thousands of really good artists and creators and writers of all different kinds of stuff, but even just in the little Western subgenre. To be recognized among one’s peers, I don’t know that I’ve ever felt anything better, ” said Birtcher. 

Birtcher moved to Wilsonville in 2015, after living in Kona, Hawaii. His first series was a hardboiled detective series set on the Hawaiian islands. 

“Knife River” is set in 1970s Oregon – think dusty roads and classic rock – and is the fourth installment in Birtcher’s Sheriff Ty Dawson mystery series.

“I got to research my own … teenage years through a different lens, and got to relive that period of time as a 1970s small town sheriff,” said Birtcher. 

Dawson, the series’s protagonist, is a Wilsonville sheriff, rancher and Korean War veteran who’s called to investigate the illegal hunting of bald eagles. When a town’s prodigal son returns famous and successful to record an album with his band and put on a concert, Dawson can see the signs of a disaster on the horizon.  

“There was a lot of culture, and particularly counter-culture, going on in Oregon during that time in general,” said Birtcher. “Oregon as a whole is really kind of the thing I try to get into the books. I love the rural elements, the small town elements of Wilsonville that still exist.”

Birtcher’s previous accolades include the Silver Falchion Award, along with  the Killer Nashville Readers’ Choice Award and Best Book of the Year Award. He’s also been nominated for the Nero Award and the Pacific Northwest’s Spotted Owl Awards.