A sterling collection of classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction evoking the unique spirit of the West and its people, selected and introduced by one of today's premier chroniclers of the Western landscape and a New York Times bestselling author.

Introduction
In the Beginning . . .	p. 1
New Mexico's Mystery Stone	p. 3
The Message in the Bottle	p. 6
Drake's Brass Plaque	p. 8
The Real Manila Galleon	p. 11
The Long Way Home	p. 14
The Stone Thoen Found	p. 16
Boulders Taller than the Great Tower of Seville	p. 19
"The Most Sublime Spectacle on Earth"	p. 21
Fifty Leagues of Silver	p. 25
Captain Jose Zuniga's Report	p. 27
Are We Prisoners of War?	p. 29
The Russians in California	p. 31
The Original Westerners	p. 35
Ishi, The Last One Left Alive	p. 37
The Man Who Killed the Deer	p. 43
The Pacifist Warrior	p. 47
The Way to Rainy Mountain	p. 51
Colter's Run	p. 57
"Can You Blot Out Those Stars?"	p. 61
"I Will Fight No More Forever"	p. 63
The Navajos	p. 65
The Murder of Narbona	p. 67
Barboncito's Plea	p. 73
The Hogan	p. 82
Laughing Boy	p. 84
The Death of Old Man Hat	p. 89
The Hispanos	p. 93
The Muleteers	p. 95
Brothers of the Light	p. 97
Blessing the Animals	p. 103
Ramona	p. 106
A Santa Fe Fandango	p. 112
Frontier Life	p. 117
The Burning Bush	p. 119
A Twenty-Dollar Christmas Ball	p. 121
Christmas in Round Valley	p. 123
"A Rather Pretentious Sod House"	p. 125
"Quite Discouraged and Impatient for His Death . . ."	p. 128
The Bashful Trapper	p. 132
"And the Skies Are Not Cloudy All Day"	p. 134
The $175,000 Sack of Flour	p. 138
How Americans Get Ahead	p. 140
J. C. Penney's First Day	p. 142
Wolf Willow	p. 144
The Melting Pot	p. 147
Basques in Nevada	p. 149
Nails and Whiskey	p. 153
Death Valley Scotty's Story	p. 155
Burial Customs at Fort Pierre	p. 159
Cowboys	p. 163
The Harvard Cowboy	p. 165
The Spree at the End of the Trail	p. 169
Charlie Siringo's Flirtation	p. 171
"I Threw My Timid Friend a Bisquit"	p. 176
The Cowboy Strike	p. 178
The First Rodeos	p. 180
The Chuck Wagon	p. 183
When You Call Me That, Smile!	p. 185
Tall Tales and Practical Jokes	p. 189
The Travelling Stones, and Other Such Affairs	p. 191
The First Jumping Frog	p. 195
How Trout Survive Mountain Winters	p. 197
"I Am Not Aware That Anyone Has Been Born Lately"	p. 200
I Paint the Truth Just as It Is	p. 202
The Buffalo Corral and Milking Pen	p. 204
The Greasewood Golf Course	p. 207
The Badger Fight	p. 210
"Anything That Will Make Money"	p. 213
Characters	p. 217
"Genial If Rambunctious"	p. 219
How the Ski Came to Snow Country	p. 224
The Emperor of California	p. 226
Schlatter the Healer	p. 228
Law West of the Pecos	p. 231
How Phoenix Got Its Name	p. 236
Uncle Dick Wootton	p. 241
Culture Comes to Virginia City	p. 245
The Mines	p. 251
Gold Only Waiting to Be Gathered Up	p. 253
"Something Shining in the Bottom of the Ditch"	p. 261
"Men Living Like Coyotes"	p. 265
Sutro's Tunnel	p. 267
Growing Up in Bonanza Town	p. 271
Boyhood at the Chloride Flat	p. 279
The Sun River Stampede	p. 283
The Post-Hole Banks	p. 286
There's Gems in Them Thar Hills	p. 289
Women	p. 293
"A Pretty Hoorah Place"	p. 295
Now the Prairie Life Begins!	p. 302
The Pregnant Private	p. 304
Great Western, the Army's Amazon	p. 306
Doing the Washing	p. 310
"A Ball Put in Your Carcass"	p. 312
Rags to Riches to Rags	p. 314
And from Rags to Riches to Starvation	p. 316
Biscuits, Coffee and Beans	p. 320
Greasy Meals, Infested with Lazy Flies	p. 323
Contempt of Court	p. 325
Goldfield Booms	p. 328
Law and Disorder	p. 333
Missed Four Thousand Times	p. 335
The Marquis de Peralta	p. 339
"It Began with Wrong and Outrage"	p. 343
The Real Billy the Kid	p. 346
Billy's Alive, and So Is Jesse	p. 349
That Famous Shootout at the O.K. Corral	p. 351
The Soldier of Fortune	p. 354
"No Complaint Was Made Against Him"	p. 356
Taking Politics Seriously	p. 358
The Hanging Windmill	p. 360
More Action at Hanging Windmill	p. 363
The Johnson County War	p. 365
Travel	p. 367
Over the Oregon Trail	p. 369
Thus the First Mail Was Brought on Camels	p. 373
Aubry's Great Ride	p. 375
"Without Any Thing to Eat but the Dead"	p. 379
"Goodbye, Death Valley"	p. 385
"Fifteen-Hundred Hats Were Lost Yearly"	p. 391
The Great Wagon-Train Swindle	p. 394
Horace Greeley's Wild Ride	p. 398
What the Travel Agent Doesn't Tell You	p. 401
Cold Feet	p. 407
A Revolver Is an Admirable Tool . . .	p. 409
The Desert Traveler's Kit	p. 414
How Exquisitely Pleasant, How Cosy and Delightful!	p. 416
The Race for Raton Pass	p. 420
The Continent Is Joined	p. 423
They Do Not Drink, Fight, or Strike	p. 425
The Rawhide Railroad	p. 427
185 Miles in Fifteen Hours and Twenty Minutes	p. 432
Finally, Behind the Wheel!	p. 436
Steinbeck's Highway 66	p. 439
The Military	p. 443
The Last Word from the Alamo	p. 445
The Mormon Battalion	p. 447
"We Have Come Amongst You"	p. 451
Paddy Graydon's Civil War	p. 453
Custer's Last Letter Home	p. 455
Mrs. Custer Hears the News	p. 457
The Western Way with Words	p. 459
"Jose Maria Martin! Stand Up!"	p. 461
"Stand Up, Ye Son-of-a-Bitch"	p. 463
Why Wilderness?	p. 466
"The Dirty Nincompoop Who Edits That Journal"	p. 470
"To The World!!"	p. 474
"I Ask: What Is Life?"	p. 475
Fiction	p. 481
The Rules of the Game	p. 483
The Outcasts of Poker Flat	p. 486
The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky	p. 496
Cabin Fever	p. 506
Honey in the Horn	p. 509
"It Must Be Something Exciting"	p. 516
McTeague	p. 522
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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