After being left behind there by his mother, ten-year-old Randy Davis now lives at the ranch where his dad, Jake, works as a ranch hand. Fitting in and winning the love of his father, a rough and stern man, is turning out to be a struggle. Ranch life is very different from his former life in Crane, Texas. Each day brings new challenges and trials. For example, Smitty, the alcoholic fence rider of the ranch, attacks Juanita, the ranch cook, but is caught by Randy, causing more strife at the ranch. Hank, the ranch foreman, finds a rescue horse and a puppy for Randy at the sale auction in San Angelo. Meanwhile, the capture of a wild rodeo bull while Hank and Marty are away at the auction tries Jake's skills and patience and almost takes his life as he struggles to bring him in. While Randy learns quickly what it means to be a cowboy, he and his dad discover a mutual respect and love for each other through the trials and hardships of ranch life.
The perfect addition to every family’s home library and just right for sharing aloud, American Tall Tales introduces readers to America’s first folk heroes in nine wildly exaggerated and downright funny stories. Here are Paul Bunyan, that king-sized lumberjack who could fell “ten white pines with a single swing”; John Henry, with his mighty hammer; Mose, old New York’s biggest, bravest fireman; Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind, who could “outgrin, outsnort, outrun, outlift, outsneeze, outsleep, outlie any varmint”; and other uniquely American characters, together in one superb collection. In the tradition of the original nineteenth-century storytellers, Mary Pope Osborne compiles, edits, and adds her own two cents’ worth—and also supplies fascinating historical headnotes. Michael McCurdy’s robust colored wood engravings recall an earlier time, perfectly capturing all the vitality of the men and women who carved a new country out of the North American wilderness.
Boyd seed a way that hunter-gatherer artists expressed their belief systems; provided a mechanism for social and environmental adaptation; and acted as agents in the social, economic, and ideological affairs of the community. She offers detailed information gleaned from the art regarding the nature of the Lower Pecos cosmos, ritual practices involving the use of sacramental and medicinal plants, and hunter-gatherer lifeways.
Reid has assembled writings by an astonishing array of leading authors--Larry McMurtry, Woody Guthrie, and more--to explore the politicization, culture, history, and ecology of the vital river.
Here for the first time is a digest of known information about the stallions whose descendants appear in the early volumes of the American Quarter Horse Association studbook. Robert M. Denhardt, a former officer in the American Quarter Horse Association, spent many years tracking down the bloodlines of the foundation sires, their pedigrees, and highlights of their careers. The result is a brief but comprehensive alphabetical listing of the stallions that made the Quarter Horse one of the most exciting and popular breeds of horses in the Americas today.
"The anecdotes associated with Texas's fabled cowboy hero burst from the pages in rapid succession, Kellogg's robust illustrations enlarging and enriching the energetic text."--School Library Journal. "A read-aloud treat....One of Kellogg's best."--Booklist.
This is the story of the antebellum frontier in Texas, from the Red River to El Paso, a raw and primitive country punctuated by chaos, lawlessness, and violence. During this time, the federal government and the State of Texas often worked at cross-purposes, their confused and contradictory policies leaving settlers on their own to deal with vigilantes, lynchings, raiding American Indians, and Anglo-American outlaws. Before the Civil War, the Texas frontier was a sectional transition zone where southern ideology clashed with western perspectives and where diverse cultures with differing worldviews collided. This is also the tale of the Butterfield Overland Mail, which carried passengers and mail west from St. Louis to San Francisco through Texas. While it operated, the transcontinental mail line intersected and influenced much of the region's frontier history. Through meticulous research, including visits to all the sites he describes, Glen Sample Ely uncovers the fascinating story of the Butterfield Overland Mail in Texas. Until the U.S. Army and Butterfield built West Texas’s infrastructure, the region’s primitive transportation network hampered its development. As Ely shows, the Overland Mail Company and the army jump-started growth, serving together as both the economic engine and the advance agent for European American settlement. Used by soldiers, emigrants, freighters, and stagecoaches, the Overland Mail Road was the nineteenth-century equivalent of the modern interstate highway system, stimulating passenger traffic, commercial freighting, and business. Although most of the action takes place within the Lone Star State, this is in many respects an American tale. The same concerns that challenged frontier residents confronted citizens across the country. Written in an engaging style that transports readers to the rowdy frontier and the bustle of the overland road, The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail offers a rare view of Texas’s antebellum past.
