Was life on the range in the 1880s and 1890s anything like the hard
riding, hard working, hard drinking shoot 'em up images that
moviegoers saw in old Westerns? Yes-and then some, the authentic
documents in this collection tell us. Cowboys, sheepherders,
ranchers and all those around them in Territorial New Mexico were
engaged in constant life-and-death struggles. They battled with
each other and with Indians. They endured blizzards, fires,
drought, floods, disease and stampeding cattle. In one account, on
the morning after Comanche Indians stole all their cattle, James
Chisum told his daughter, "Cheer up, Sallie, the worst is yet to
come." Also included in this collection are reports of cooperation
and glimpses of daily happiness: the simple pleasure of riding the
range; camaraderie during roundups; hot meals dished out from the
chuck wagon; cow camp entertainments; trips to town for fandangos;
a sheepherder resting beneath the constellations and his breakfast
of "burraniates." There are also high-spirited narratives
describing the taming of a good steer, adventures along the cattle
trails, the retrieval of mavericks and the roundup of mustangs. If
the stories in this collection seem familiar, they are also
surprisingly fresh. Luckily for the rest of us, field workers in
the Federal Writers' Project (a branch of the government-funded
Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called the Work
Projects Administration), loved to listen and record as much as
their subjects liked to talk. The resulting stories from 1935 to
1939 are rich in detail and human spirit. This collection also
includes local newspaper articles, reports from New Mexico
governors on the state of the livestock industry, cowboy poems,
square dance calls, descriptions and drawings of cattle brands,
glossaries of cowboy terms and the names of ranches in Colfax
County. "Cowboys, Ranching & Cattle Trails" is the fifth volume
in the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project book series. Previous
titles are "Outlaws & Desperados," "Frontier Stories," "Lost
Treasures & Old Mines" and "Stories from Hispano New Mexico."
ANN LACY, an artist and researcher/writer, has lived in New Mexico
since 1979. She works on projects related to New Mexico history,
culture and environment issues. She is the recipient of a City of
Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award. ANNE VALLEY-FOX, writer, poet
and researcher, is co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers'
Project Book series. Her fourth volume of poetry is "How Shadows
Are Bundled."
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