Hard Grass

by Strange, Mary Zeiss

• ISBN13: 9780826346131
• ISBN10: 0826346138
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-30
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr

Summary

Mary Zeiss Stange's story of running a bison ranch with her husband in southeastern Montana--on the outskirts of nowhere and far-from-here--is a narrative of survival in a landscape and a society at once harsh and alluring. In this series of essays she illustrates the realities of ranch life at a time when the New West of subdivision, ranchettes, telecommuting, and tourism collides with the True West of too much, too little, too hard, and too harsh. This society is molded by the climate, and both run to extremes, simultaneously unforgiving, often brutal, yet capable of unalloyed charm and breathtaking beauty. Her stories explore the myths and realities of ranch life in modern America--the brandings, rodeos, and demolition derbies that are major events, and the social, environmental, and political factors at work in shaping the land and the people. Less memoir than deep history of people and place, these vivid, naturalistic tales examine the complex relationships that comprise life in the rural West today.

Table of Contents

Preface: Working ôOff the Placeö	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiv
Introduction: Coming Home to the Country	p. 1
The Lay of the Land	p. 11
Being ôDifferntö	p. 39
Intrepid Hippies, Homesteaders, and Other Survivors	p. 61
The Law of the Frontier	p. 83
Animal Affinities	p. 99
Hard Grass	p. 125
Hunting Nature, Hunting Culture	p. 153
The Business of Buffalo	p. 173
The First, and Last, Annual Buffalo Gals Hunt	p. 201
A Nice Place to Visit	p. 227
Next Year Country	p. 255
New West, True West?	p. 275
Epilogue: Rockfall	p. 295
Resources	p. 297
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