It is pleasant to stray in the Big Bend and Davis Mountains country of Far West Texas. The vast spaces, rugged terrain, and sparse settlement invite straying--and tale spinning. In Stray Tales of the Big Bend master folklorist Elton Miles continues to intrigue and enchant with stories of the region and its culture. Readers will find in this volume new tales of Terlingua Desert mystery bells, spirit-guarded treasure, and the mock-sacrificial San Vicente rain dance with its pre-Christian vestiges. Travelers will enjoy learning the lore of the rugged land they visit. Historians will discover the most complete account of the Glenn Springs-Boquillas raid of 1916, as well as stories of the spirit-world-inspired "Old Orient" railroad, which ran from Kansas through the Big Bend to the Gulf of Baja California. Here too is a story, with new information, about the controversial Big Bend tablet, discovered at Hot Springs and said to prove that Europeans were present there about A.D. 300. Miles recounts the recollections of cowboy preachers, camp meetings, and the reticent yet sometimes uninhibited religious attitudes of the cowboy, both open-range and modern.

Hidden treasures dot the Big Bend country of far west Texas. From the Guadalupes to the Chinatis and the Chisos, lost mines and abandoned hoards lie like magnets, pulling at the treasure hunter's heart. Or so the stories go. But perhaps the stories are themselves the hidden treasures. The Big Bend has always attracted an unusual sort of settler, and the settlers have spawned an unusual wealth of lore. Their tales live in the oral tradition of the place, adding to its color, mystery, and appeal. There is horse trader Zack Miller, who has to unload two thousand horses bought from the Mexican army of Victoriano Huerta. There is generous Maggie Smith, who trades in candelilla wax (obtained legally or otherwise), raises stray children who need a home, and cares for every honest passerby. Evans Means appears, weathering the border troubles the Mexican Revolution spawned by putting a smile on his face, a pistol on his hip, two languages on his tongue, and [drinking] coffee with anybody on the border. For more than thirty years Elton Miles collected the lively stories and legends that spring from the unique Big Bend lifestyle. A companion to his successful Tales of the Big Bend, this collection will fascinate visitors to the region and will make a lasting contribution to the annals of Texas folklore.

The folklore of Texas' Big Bend region was still in the making during Walter Fulcher's lifetime. Born in Lampasas County in 1887, he worked on the Martin Ranch near Sheffield when a young man. There he witnessed events in the last outlaw activities of the Black Jack Ketchum gang.

He also listened to legends told almost as gossip, and some of the legendary figures were still alive--or said to be alive, usually in hiding. In every village there was sure to be some ancient with a good memory and a better imagination, and Walter Fulcher heard many versions of many tales. He has set them down as he heard them, as simple folk tales that reflect the color of a wild and vivid country in 400 years of its settlement.

The book has been edited, with introduction and notes, by Elton Miles, Professor of English at Sui Ross State College.

No. 7-as Carpenter, the youngest of seven children, called himself-was born in Missouri in 1854 and moved west with his family, first to Kansas, then to the settlements near Pikes Peak, and finally, in 1872, to Texas with his elder brother. From the time he made his first cattle drive, he wanted no other life but that of herding longhorns across the free and flat grasslands of the West. His schooling was the trail, the campfire, the saddle. In 1900, after a full and active life, he retired to his own ranch west of the Pecos. As the years passed, he sadly watched the fences go up and the free range disappear. Thus this book came to be written from the longing memory of a time-stranded cowman. He tells his story in the hard-punching, gritty language, direct humor, and attachment to bald fact and frank opinion that characterize the true Westerner. Elton Miles has provided an introduction that fills in the details of Carpenter's life and completes a "vivid picture of the genuine old-time cowman," as Southwest Review observed.