In a career forged in the saddle on scout duty along the Rio Grande, Arthur Hill witnessed dramatic changes from 1947 to 1974. Whether inspecting brands, deterring smugglers of everything from cattle to candelilla wax, or giving chase on horseback across merciless terrain—often into Mexico—Hill found himself immersed in a world that straddled centuries as well as cultures.
Promotion to sergeant of Ranger Company B in 1957 took Hill to Dallas, where he brought his brush-country methods to bear on urban crimes. Yet after only a year, and despite the opportunity for advancement to captain, Hill knew his place and heart were back in the Big Bend, where rampant drug trade was altering his beloved border irrevocably from an existence that had remained the same for hundreds of years.
From the Lone Star Steel strike, the KKK, and the “Dixie Mafia” to problems of drug-running and illegal immigration, Arthur Hill’s life as a Texas ranger illuminates present issues as well as the past.
I hope to give the reader the chance to ride through the Big Bend with Hill, and hear of the Texas that was and the Texas that emerged on his watch. — S. E. Spinks
