As well as being the center of ranching activity in the Panhandle, Tascosa also became the last best hiding place in Texas for killers on the run, horse thieves, tinhorn gamblers, hair-trigger shootists...
This book provides a rare look at the day-to-day details of running the Pitchfork Ranch during the late 1930s. Letters of brothers Eugene F. Williams and J. Gates Williams and of Virgil V. Parr illuminate...
In 1870, sixteen-year-old Frank Maynard left his home in Iowa and took a job helping to trail a small herd of cattle from Missouri to Colorado. Thus began his adventures as an open-range cowboy, a ten-year career that coincided with the peak of the great trail-drive era. Among the highlights of Maynard’s time on the range were brushes with outlaws and encounters with famous lawmen. But his most enduring contribution sprang from overhearing a version of an old Irish ballad in 1876 and reworking it as “The Cowboy’s Lament,” the standard most recognize today as “The Streets of Laredo.” His role in adapting the song and his other colorful experiences on the trail have come to light with the recent discovery of his unpublished memoir. Now, alongside the frontier recollections of Charlie Siringo and Charles Colchord, Maynard’s personal account offers a rare and revealing glimpse of the true Old West.
A century ago, when Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona outlawed steer roping contests, there was one place a southwestern roper could go to hone his skills: Cowboy Park, the arena established in 1907 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. During the formative years of rodeo that preceded the first Calgary Stampede in 1912, Cowboy Park promoted the sport of steer roping and provided a ready training ground for up-and-coming champions. From its inception until growing political turmoil in Mexico brought the enterprise to a halt, Cowboy Park kept the sport alive and fostered celebrity—its “alumni” swept the first prizes in Calgary and continued to dominate for some years. This unique institution, despite its significant influence on the future of rodeo, has until now received scant attention. Through the history he has recovered and photographs—many published here for the first time—John Baxter documents and...
With pockets full of cash and the help of trusted scouts, oilman James J. Wheat of Loving County, Texas, amassed one of the most impressive collections of horse spurs in the state. Drawing from the 920 spur pairs and singles and more than 100 bits Wheat donated to the Ranching Heritage Association in 1985, expert appraiser Bruce Bartlett has compiled a volume as rich in history as it is in full-color images. With its lavish, oversized photographs and fine-grained descriptions, The Spurs of James J. Wheat presents a treat for the eye and a close look at a fascinating aspect of Western utilitarian art.
“A veritable Who’s Who of pioneer cattlemen.” —Elmer Kelton, from the Foreword John and Mahlon Thatcher were two of the many pioneers looking to begin a new life in the great open spaces of...
A Walk Through the National Ranching Heritage Center
by Marsha Pfluger
Price: $39.00
ISBN: 9780975936009
Pub Date: October 2004
This unique and beautiful volume celebrates the National Ranching Heritage Center, a museum and historical park located on the northern edge of the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock. Dedicated...
The Four Sixes is not a relic, showpiece, or preserve. It’s a working cattle ranch, some 290,000 acres of West Texas prairie carefully used. Here, men still earn their livelihoods on horseback, not out of blind adherence to tradition, but out of necessity. Since Samuel “Burk” Burnett began buying rangeland in King County in the 1890s, his cowhands have relied on methods developed by early vaqueros and refined on the great trail drives. In managing cattle, these methods are still the most efficient and humane. Spurs, broad-brimmed hats, and scuffed and patched boots are not fashion statements but essentials—as are loyalty, toughness, and resourcefulness, traits still common to those doing dangerous work in remote country. Perhaps, though, the Four Sixes’ greatest legacy is the land itself. Across four generations, foremen have striven to nurture and restore, to leave a healthy range. That stewardship has produced some of the richest, most...
