Cattle, Horses and Men of the Western Range

I was delighted to find this book because it contains references to my grandfather, who was noted in Texas and New Mexico for his skills in breaking horses. It is easy to read and very interesting about life on the early cattle ranches of Texas. Highly recommended for readers interested in the true "Old West".

Of the many memoirs and reminiscences of frontier ranching and cowboying, this is one of the best. It is packed with information of all kinds and written gracefully and intelligently by its author, John (Jack) Culley, who came out West from a wealthy family in northern England and was educated at Oxford. The word "cattle" comes first in the title because he is first and last a cattleman. At the age of 30 he was already range manager at the massive Bell Ranch in northeast New Mexico, with its herds of Hereford stock. The book was first published in 1940, so Culley is looking back over a half century of Western history, observing sometimes tongue in cheek how times have changed. Mostly, he is a rich source of detailed information about ranching life when the ranch where he worked in the 1890s was the only fenced-in rangeland between Canada and Mexico. His recollections include character sketches of the men who worked with him as well as a number of bandits who robbed trains and were eventually captured. There's also a chapter devoted to a curiously likable local gunman who killed many men in self defense but was never taken to trial. There are chapters devoted to horses, good and bad, and styles of riding and training horses. He describes a day on a roundup from dawn to dark. He challenges the romantic notions about the West perpetrated by Hollywood. And he has an encyclopedic knowledge of ranches in the region (including southern Colorado), brands, and cattle breeding. As someone who likes to consider himself well read in frontier ranching culture, I found myself learning much that I didn't already know. It's a treasure of information and anecdotes for anyone interested in the Old West as it really was.

"Come with me if you have time today and we'll take a little trip in north-eastern New Mexico," writes Jack Culley in the opening sentence of this book about cowboying and ranch life in the 1890s. It's that use of the pronoun "we" that signals something different about Culley's approach and style: in most similar books the author places himself somewhat at a distance from his reader as he relates his experiences on the range. Culley invites us in and there's an intimacy about his narrative missing in most other memoirs about early ranch life in the West. It at once puts the book on a higher pedestal than most other books on the same subject. Culley came to America as a young man after growing up on a stock farm in England. Oxford educated, he was as familiar with classic literature as he was with horse breeding; his learning (of both) shows in his writing style. For five years he was range manager at the Bell Ranch in NE New Mexico, and most of this book deals with those days. He relates the hard work of the cowboy - the long hours in the saddle, the harsh weather, breaking horses, life on a cattle drive - but he also has chapters on the history of the Bell Ranch area, on outlaws (he's fascinated by them in a Sir Walter Scott sort of way), what constitutes a good horse, fellow cowboys, and town life in nearby Clayton. It's a full picture of things, multi-dimensional and interesting. Always, though, it's his warm, personal style that wins the reader over and keeps him won: "And here I'm going to relate to you a little personal happening," he writes at one point, and then goes on to explain "the value of good hands" in riding a horse. The book has great appeal, even for those who might not be overly fascinated with the subject. Of all the books about life on the range prior to the coming of the automobile, this book is among the very best.