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."

The story of Spanish settlement in New Mexico begins with Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition into the territory in 1540-1542. The conquistadors were seeking new lands, gold, and converts to Christianity. In 1598, Juan de Onate's expedition of soldiers, settlers and indigenous Mexicans arrived, charged by the Crown to colonize the northern frontier of New Spain. Far from Mexico and the seat of Spanish government, in a land of extremes already inhabited by the First Americans, these settlers proved their tenacity. Farmers, shepherds and townspeople, they lived off the land: they built houses and churches, constructed irrigation ditches, raised crops, wove cloth and hunted for food in an often hostile land. They borrowed, bartered and intermarried with their Pueblo neighbors and weathered an occasional uprising; they battled with Comanche, Apache, and Navajo for control of land and resources. When the American army arrived, they chose sides and paid the consequences. Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the New Deal Works Project Administration's Federal Writers' Project (WPA) recorded authentic accounts of life in the early days of New Mexico. Happily for us, Hispano settlers were avid storytellers and gave the field writers detailed descriptions of village life, battles with Indians, encounters with Billy the Kid, witchcraft, marriages, festivals and floods. The result is a rich and uniquely regional literature. "Stories from Hispano New Mexico" is the fourth volume in the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project Book series. The first three titles in the series are "Outlaws & Desperados, Frontier Stories" and "Lost Treasures & Old Mines," all from Sunstone Press. ANN LACY, an artist and researcher/writer, has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has worked for Project Crossroads, a not-for-profit educational resource group, in projects related to New Mexico history and culture. Participating in preserving open space and preservation efforts, she received a City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award in 2000. ANNE VALLEY-FOX is co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project Book series. She is a poet and writer who has worked for two decades as a writer/researcher for Project Crossroads. Her fourth collection of poetry is "How Shadows Are Bundled" (University of New Mexico Press, 2009).

"Lost Treasures & Old Mines" brims with stories of gold fever, copper ore, and silver mining in the American Southwest.

Between 1850 and 1912, the year New Mexico was granted statehood, the Territory of New Mexico was a wild and dangerous place. Homesteaders, cowboys, ranchers, sheepherders, buffalo hunters, prospectors, treasure hunters and railroad men pushing the borders of the western frontier met with resistance from man and animal alike. Native Americans, who had lived on the land defending their boundaries and way of life for centuries, reacted to the wave of outsiders in various ways. The agrarian Pueblo peoples along the Rio Grande largely kept to themselves. Apache, Navajo and Ute tribes sometimes attempted to co-exist with the newcomers but most often they fought against encroachment. Anglo and Mexican outlaws ran roughshod across the frontier and there was no shortage of bears, wolves, mountain lions, blizzards and bad water to unsettle the newcomers. This collection of frontier stories vividly illustrates the range of struggles, triumphs and catastrophes faced by settlers who hoped to tame the land and inhabitants of Territorial New Mexico. Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the Federal Writers' Project (a branch of the government-funded Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called Work Projects Administration) recorded authentic accounts of life in the early days of New Mexico. These original documents, published here as a story collection for the first time, reflect the conditions of the New Mexico Territory as played out in dynamic clashes between individuals and groups competing for control of the land and resources. "Frontier Stories," the second in the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project Book Series, features informative background and historic photographs. Forthcoming books in the series include collections on mining and buried treasure, Hispano folk life, and cattle trails and ranching. Ann Lacy, co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project Book series, has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has been an Artist-in-Residence in the New Mexico Artists-in-the-Schools Program and a studio artist exhibiting her work in museums and galleries. She has worked as a researcher and writer for Project Crossroads, specializing in New Mexico history and culture, since 1987. She received a City of Santa Fe 2000 Heritage Preservation Award. Anne Valley-Fox, co-editor of the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project Book series, is a poet and writer who has worked for two decades as a writer/researcher for Project Crossroads. Her publications include "Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life through Writing and Storytelling," "Sending the Body Out," "Fish Drum 15" and "Point of No Return." "How Shadows Are Bundled" is her latest collection of poems.

In the early days of the American West, outlaws dominated the New Mexico Territory. Such colorful characters as Black Jack Ketchum, the Apache Kid, Curly Bill, Devil Dick, Billy the Kid, Bill McGinnis, Vicente Silva and his gang, the Dalton Brothers, and the Wild Bunch terrorized the land. Feared by many, loved by some, their exploits were both horrifying and legendary. In between forays, notorious outlaws were sometimes exemplary cowboys. Singly or in gangs, they held up stagecoaches and trains and stole from prospectors and settlers. When outlaws reigned, bank holdups, shoot-outs, and murders were a common occurrence; death by hanging became a favored means of settling disputes by outlaws and vigilantes alike. Stories of outlaws later provided plots for many of our favorite Western movies. Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the Federal Writers' Project (a part of the government-funded Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called Work Projects Administration) collected and wrote down many accounts that provide an authentic and vivid picture of outlaws in the early days of New Mexico. They feature life history narratives of places, characters, and events of the Wild West during the late 1800s. These original documents reflect the unruly, eccentric conditions of the New Mexico Territory as they played out in clashes and collaborations between outlaws and "the gentle people" of New Mexico before and after statehood. This book, focusing on outlaws and desperados, is the first in a series featuring stories from the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project collection. Other books in the series include stories about ranchers, cowboys, and the wild and woolly adventures of sheepherders, homesteaders, prospectors, and treasure hunters. In them, the untamed New Mexico Territory comes to life with descriptions of encounters with Indians, travels along the old trails, cattle rustling, murders at the gambling table, and Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus. This treasury of Federal Writers' Project records, presented with informative background and historic photographs, also highlights Hispano folk life and Western lore in old New Mexico. ANN LACY has lived in New Mexico since 1979. She has been an Artist-in-Residence in the New Mexico Artists-in-the-Schools Program and a studio artist exhibiting her work in museums and galleries. As a researcher and writer, she has specialized in New Mexico history and culture. She received a City of Santa Fe 2000 Heritage Preservation Award. ANNE VALLEY-FOX is a New Mexico poet and writer. Her publications include "Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life through Writing and Storytelling," "Sending the Body Out, "Fish Drum 14" and "Point of No Return." Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, including "El Palacio: Art, History and Culture of the Southwest,"" New Mexico Poetry Renaissance" and "In Company: An Anthology of New Mexico Poets After 1960."