---

Suggested Reading

ADAMS, ANDY. Log of a Cowboy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1903. This classic piece of Western fiction, written by a former trail boss, provides a vivid account of a great cattle drive. Authentically portrays the cowboy and trail life.

ATHEARN, ROBERT G. High Country Empire: The High Plains and Rockies. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960. A first-rate history of the region drained by the Missouri River, comprising the States of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming. Emphasizes broad regional developments.

ATHERTON, LEWIS E. The Cattle Kings. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961. A readable and interpretive account of the great cattle drives and the open range cattle industry on the Plains.

BRANCH, DOUGLAS. The Cowboy and His Interpreters. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1926. A reliable work on the cowboy and what has been written about him.

BUCK, SOLON J. The Agrarian Crusade—A Chronicle of the Farmer in Politics. Vol. XLV of The Chronicles of America series, ed. by Allen Johnson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1920. Traces the agrarian crusade and its political implications from the Granges, through the Greenback and Populist phases, to its climax in the battle for free silver.

CAUGHEY, JOHN W. Gold is the Cornerstone. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948. Surveys all aspects of the California gold rush. Accords special attention to the economic, social, political, and cultural results.

CLELAND, ROBERT G. Cattle on a Thousand Hills. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1941. One of the best works on the cattle industry in California.

DALE, EDWARD E. The Range Cattle Industry. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1930. A standard work. Traces the development of the ranch industry on the Plains from the close of the Civil War to the 1920's.

DICK, EVERETT. The Sod-House Frontier. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1937. An original synthesis that surveys the entire process of agricultural settlement on the Great Plains. Presents a sympathetic and realistic account of the living conditions, social life, and obstacles faced by the farmers. Descriptive rather than interpretive.

______. Vanguards of the Frontier—A Social History of the Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains from the Fur Traders to the Sod Busters. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1941. Deals mainly with the pre-settlement phase. Traces the activities of the mountain men, frontier soldiers, missionaries, Indian agents, railroad builders, buffalo hunters, and cattlemen. Topics covered include the Santa Fe trade, Mormon migration, mining camps, stagecoach travel, trail driving, and sheep raising.

DOBIE, J. FRANK. The Longhorns. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1941. A genial Texan who had a unique literary style, Dobie excelled in describing the range life he knew and loved. A companion work to this volume is The Mustangs (1952).

FRANTZ, JOE B., and JULIAN E. CHOATE, JR. The American Cowboy—The Myth and the Reality. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955. Separates fact from fantasy in cowboy lore, and analyzes various literary treatments of the cowboy.

GARD, WAYNE. Frontier Justice. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949. Discusses feuds, range wars, vigilante activities, and the rise of law and order in the West.

GREEVER, WILLIAM S. The Bonanza West—The Story of the Western Mining Rushes, 1848-1900. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. A readable but scholarly treatment of the major mining rushes.

HALEY, J. EVETTS. Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949. An excellent biography of one of the most colorful and important figures in the range cattle industry that also provides much information on ranching in general.

HIBBARD, BENJAMIN H. A History of Public Land Policies. New York: Macmillan Company, 1924, rev. ed. 1939. One of the most authorative histories of public land policy in the United States.

HICKS, JOHN D. The Populist Revolt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1931. Treats agrarian unrest in the Middle West and the Great Plains and the political reactions of the farmers. Examines the conditions that produced the Populist movement, its supporters, and its contributions to political and economic reform.

HUFFMAN, ROY E. Irrigation Development and Public Water Policy New York: Ronald Press, 1953. Presents the history of irrigation and river basin development in the United States. Analyzes the nature and administration of water rights and the relation of irrigation to land policy.

MCCOY, JOSEPH G. Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, ed. by Ralph P. Bieber. Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1940. One of the founders of the open range cattle industry reminisces about its beginnings.

OSGOOD, ERNEST S. The Day of the Cattleman. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1929. An outstanding work on the cattle industry. Emphasizes the economic influence of the industry.

PAUL, RODMAN W. Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963. A broad study of Western mining. Stresses the importance of science and technology in advancing the mining frontier.

PELZER, LOUIS. The Cattlemen's Frontier. Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1936. Soundly analyzes the economics of the cattle industry and the attitudes of the cattle barons.

ROLLINS, PHILIP A. The Cowboy. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1922, rev. ed., 1936. Among the many accounts of the cowboy's life and the development of the ranch industry, this one by a former cowboy has stood the test of time.

SHANNON, FRED A. The Farmer's Last Frontier. Vol. V of The Economic History of the United States. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1945. One of the best accounts of all phases of the farmers' frontier.

SMITH, HENRY N. Virgin Land—The American West as Symbol and Myth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950. One of the few books that discusses the treatment of the agricultural West in American literature.

TOWNE, CHARLES W., and EDWARD N. WENTWORTH. Shepherd's Empire. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1945. Tells the store of the sheep industry in the West from the days of the conquistadors to the present.

WEBB, WALTER P. The Great Plains. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1931. This influential book discusses the effects of climate, geography, fencing, and water upon the development of the land and settlement patterns.

WOLLE, MURIEL S. The Bonanza Trail—Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the West. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1953. An exceptionally valuable work for those interested in the present condition of the mining towns and ghost towns of the West. The author traveled 70,000 miles by automobile throughout the 12 mining States.