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Once again, through a boy's eyes, Ralph Jackson sees a winter sky darkened with geese and ducks, a kitchen stove glowing with cheerful warmth, Aunt May strolling in her flower garden, moonlight filtering through treetops to cast patches of white light on a sandy woodland road. Again he catches odors once so familiar: of a mysterious attic, of burning salt grass in late summer, of mountain streams with their fresh green smell, of dark-roast coffee and of slab bacon sizzling in the pan. He hears a...

Earlier biographers of Abilene, the present author included, laid heavy emphasis on "the people," the human element in the establishment and continuing life of the city. But the geographical character of "the place" is also important in its creation, its history, and its future. The intertwining of these two themes dictated much of the story of the town called Abilene, Texas.The Texas and Pacific Railroad gave birth to Abilene in 1881. Among several dozen sister communities established along the...

James Madison Hall kept a journal from 1860 until just before his death in 1866, in which he recorded a daily log of events in his life and the lives of his family, slaves, and friends. It also served as a record of business dealings, money borrowed and repaid, and cost of items during the war. Hall lived in Houston County, Texas, where he was a farmer, and in Liberty County, Texas, where he was a merchant and mayor of Liberty. This book illustrates the home life of Texans during the Civil War...

Most histories of Civil War Texas - some starring the fabled Hood's Brigade, Terry's Texas Rangers, or one or another military figure - depict the Lone Star State as having joined the Confederacy as a matter of course and as having later emerged from the war relatively unscathed. Yet as the contributors to this volume amply demonstrate, the often neglected stories of Texas Unionists and dissenters paint a far more complicated picture. Ranging in time from the late 1850s to the end of Reconstruct...

Historic Photos of Arizona highlights the unique history of this state as captured in nearly 200 images reproduced in vivid black-and-white. A photographic journey from the Wild West days of Arizona lore to the modern state Arizona was soon to become, the book showcases landscapes as varied as those of the Sonoran Desert and the state's Ponderosa pine forests. From images of frontier life and copper mining Boomtowns, to turn-of-the-century Grand Canyon vistas, to Harvey Houses and Route 66, His...

“Between the high Sierras south from Yosemite—east and south over a very great assemblage of broken ranges beyond Death Valley, and on illimitably into the Mojave Desert” is the territory that Mary Austin calls the Land of Little Rain. In this classic collection of meditations on the wonders of this region, Austin generously shares “such news of the land, of its trails and what is astir in them, as one lover of it can give to another.” Her vivid writings capture the landscape—from burnt hills to...

This coffee table book takes a look back at some of the most interesting and engaging drawings by Harold Maples, the long-time political cartoonist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A native-born Texan, Maples was a staple in Fort Worth for decades and was as loved by his community as he was by his die-hard fans. Political cartoons are excellent teachers of history, and readers will be amazed at how succinctly Maples boiled down complex ideas into simple and amusing drawings. As much as his skil...

A man to rival a strong character drawn from fiction, author Carol Henderson’s great-grandfather was frontier Texas-born in the year 1860. Full of grit and determination, Thomas Henry (T. H.) Cherryhomes lived to crease the edges of Texana. It’ll Rain Someday . . . Always Does is the tale of that strong, remarkable man, his difficult life and treacherous times. More than a rags to riches story, it is the tale of everyman, everywoman, who with heroic courage fixed their sights on an uncertain fut...

Adele Briscoe Looscan was the first woman president of theTexas State Historical Association, the longest serving presidentof the association (1915-1925), and a remarkable individual.Daughter of Andrew Briscoe, signer of the Texas Declaration ofIndependence, and granddaughter of John Richardson Harris,founder of Harrisburg, Texas, she was shaped and motivated byher heritage throughout her life. Adele Looscan was a woman of her time, yet she flourished in thesociety of both men and women, earnin...

Texas Country Singers contains brief biographies of twenty-seven Texas singers. The artists chosen are traditional country singers like Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Thompson, Willie Nelson, and Ray Price. The authors have not included rockabilly artists, modern country-pop singers, singers of local or regional reputation, or singers of purely western songs. The twenty-seven singers are Texas born, admittedly an artificial discrimination, but one made necessary by the size of these small boo...

Riding the rough and sometimes bloody peaks and canyons of border politics, Santos Benavides's rise to prominence was largely the result of the careful mentoring of his well-known uncle, Basilio Benavides, who served several terms as alcalde of Laredo, Texas, and Chief Justice of Webb County. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Basilio was one of only two Tejanos in the state legislature. During Santos's lifetime, five flags flew over the small community he called home-that of the Republic of Me...

In the 19th century, Daniel Waggoner and his son, W.T. (Tom), put together an empire in North Texas that became the largest ranch under one fence in the nation. The 520,000-plus acres or 800 square miles covers six counties and sits on a large oil field in the Red River Valley of North Texas. Over the years, the estate also owned five banks, three cottonseed oil mills, and a coal company. Headquarters are in an office building in Vernon. Estimated value last quoted was $300 million. The history...

During the decades between the Civil War and the establishment of Oklahoma statehood, Choctaws suffered almost daily from murders, thefts, and assaults - usually at the hands of white intruders, but increasingly by Choctaws themselves. This book focuses on two previously unexplored murder cases to illustrate the intense factionalism that emerged among tribal members during those lawless years as conservative Nationalists and pro-assimilation Progressives fought for control of the Choctaw Nation....

First published in 1985, William deBuys's Enchantment and Exploitation has become a New Mexico classic. It offers a complete account of the relationship between society and environment in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, a region unique in its rich combination of ecological and cultural diversity. Now, more than thirty years later, this revised and expanded edition provides a long-awaited assessment of the quality of the journey that New Mexican society has traveled in that...

The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Royal Road of the Interior Land) is North America's oldest (Juan de Onate extended the Camino to New Mexico in 1598) and longest (1500 miles) road. Here, Hal Jackson brings to life this important route connecting Mexico City with Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was the lifeline for administrative, commercial, and ecclesiastical functions in northern Mexico. The northern section of the Camino Real, the portion in New Mexico and Texas, was designated a National Historic...

Cipriano Frederico Vigil is the most important performer of traditional Nuevomexicano folk music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This bilingual panoramic book presents the songs that are his life's work, spanning half a century of listening, playing, composing, and singing ritual, social, and dance music. New Mexican Folk Music includes much traditional material that has never been seen before or studied by scholars or students. Renowned as a composer, Vigil works in tra...

With more than 13,000 years of human habitation, New Mexico offers a wealth of historic sites located on vast tracts of land well off the beaten path. As author Robert Julyan observes, not much history has been made from a speeding car, and locations that have to be reached on foot are almost always less altered by parking lots, visitor centers, roadways, or traffic noise. Written for both outdoor enthusiasts and vicarious travelers, Hiking to History describes the historical significance behind...