By JUNO OGLE

juno@dailynews.net

Angela Bates has long sought to bring the history of the West's only remaining all-black settlement to the populace, and she thinks she finally has the key for doing so.

Bates, of Bogue, has published her first children's book, "Getting Mail," which is also the first in a planned series that brings the history of Nicodemus to life.

Bates has plenty of material to draw from. Her ancestors -- former slaves from Kentucky -- were among the first residents of the Graham County town founded in 1877, and a cousin, Lula Craig, was the town's first historian.

It was from Craig, who died in 1970 at age 102, that Bates learned much of the history of Nicodemus and her family.

She had struggled for years to write a children's book, though. She knew she wanted to tell the town's story through the eyes of a child.

"The dilemma I was having was I was trying to take my cousin and make her the child because she's the one who actually experienced it," she said.

But then in January, she had an epiphany.

"I should be the child, and she's imparting the knowledge to me, because that's the way it's been," she said.

So she began the story of Nicodemus Annie, a girl who is fascinated by Westerns but wants to know why the movies never have any black people.

"And so little Nicodemus Annie is going to set the story straight. She's going to collect the family histories and all the stories she can in her journal, and when she has enough, she's going to write a book," Bates said.

"It's pretty much what happened to me."

In the book, Annie's cousin Lula appears in a dream to take her back to Nicodemus in the 1880s so she can see for herself what it was like. They come across Zach Fletcher, the town's first postmaster as he makes the two-day trip on foot from Ellis to get the town's mail.

Along the way, he encounters a threatening wolf and a thunderstorm. And she sees the people of the community as they come to get their mail at the St. Francis hotel, including her great-great grandparents and a little girl who has a special letter to mail.

Annie offers Fletcher some help on his trip with one of the items in her Native American medicine bag, where she keeps special treasures.

The medicine bag will be the key to Bates' goals for the series of books.

"In the next book, Annie will lose an item, an Indian-head nickel, out of it," Bates said.

Each book will contain a clue where the nickel is. And in the real Nicodemus, there will be an Indian-head nickel hidden, with a reward for the one who finds it.

"I want them to come to Nicodemus," Bates said. "I want them to see the St. Francis Hotel. They need to see this place, they need to experience it."

Bates has hopes of seeing the books brought to life on the screen, as well. Over the years, she has worked with various companies and producers to tell the story of Nicodemus in a movie or television production, but she hopes to see an animated version of the Nicodemus Annie stories.

Bates believes that the time is right to tell that story, with America's first black president soon to take office, and his ties through his grandparents to Kansas. She plans to send a copy of the book to President-elect Barack Obama's two daughters.

"Getting the Mail" can be purchased at C.S. Post in Hays, Pineapple Post in Plainville, or by calling Bates at (785) 421-3311.