About this site
The companion site to C. V. Wooster's novel of the Mojave War.
themojavewar.com is the official companion site to When the Birds Go Silent: A Novel of the Mojave War, 1858-1859, by C. V. Wooster. It is published by Taciturn Studios LLC. The Kindle edition is scheduled for October 31, 2026.
What you will find here
This site is built for readers who want the history behind the novel as well as the book itself. You can read a sourced account of the Mojave War on the real history page, walk the years on the interactive timeline, explore the route on the home-page map, meet the people on both sides of the river, take the quiz, or download free guides for teachers and book clubs and for kids.
The author
C. V. Wooster writes about the desert West. Researching Mrs. Orcutt's Driveway, the true story of a widow at Newberry Springs whose driveway stood in the path of Interstate 40, led him to the Mojave War of 1858-1859 and to this novel. His other desert titles include The King of Quacks, about Curtis Howe Springer and Zzyzx. More about the author is at CVWooster.com.
How the history is sourced
Every historical claim on this site is meant to be checkable. We draw on Army reports and dispatches, emigrant journals (including John Udell's), and scholarship that includes Mojave voices, and we say when sources disagree. The novel itself is fiction: dialogue, inner lives and some characters are invented, and the Author's Note in the book sets out what is documented and what is imagined. Illustrations and the hero film on this site are AI-generated artistic interpretations, not historical photographs or portraits, and they are labeled as such.