Spooky Southwest Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore

by Schlosser, S. E.; Hoffman, Paul G.

• ISBN13: 9780762734252
• ISBN10: 0762734256
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: Globe Pequot

Summary

A collection of 30 folktales highlighting famous and not- so-famous Southwestern ghosts, mysterious happenings, powers of darkness, and wonders of the invisible world.

Author Biography

Author S.E. Schlosser has been telling stories since she was a child, when games of "let's pretend" quickly built themselves into full-length stories. A graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature and Rutgers University, she also created and maintains the website AmericanFolklore.net, where she shares a wealth of stories from all 50 states, some dating back to the origins of America.

Artist Paul Hoffman trained in painting and printmaking, with his first extensive illustration work on assignment in Egypt, drawing ancient wall reliefs for the University of Chicago. His work graces books of many genres - children's titles, textbooks, short story collections, natural history volumes, and numerous cookbooks. For Spooky Southwest, he employed a scratchboard technique and an active imagination.

Excerpts

Stampede Mesa
Crosby County, Texas

I told Billy it was a bad idea, letting the herd overnight on Stampede Mesa. Oh I grant you that the grazing atop the 200 acres mesa is nearly always choice. But the history of the place! Well, none of the other cowboys would go near the mesa, especially at night. And no one in his right mind would take a herd there. They'd heard the same stories I had.
One cowpoke I know, a real shy fellow name of Ted, once told me in confidence that one stormy evening, while he was riding past the mesa, he had seen a herd of cattle stampeding through the clouds, driven by a terrible ghost on a blindfolded horse. The herd and its guards had fallen down a cloudy canyon and disappeared before Ted's eyes.
Now Ted is such a truthful fellow that the other cowpokes call him preacher. I believed his story, and was real angry when Billy insisted we overnight the herd there. But I was outvoted. None of the other cowboys would admit to believing in ghosts, and I was laughed to scorn when I voted we try another place for the night. So I rode a little away from the others, watching my section of cattle and remembering the story of Stampede Mesa and how it came to be haunted.

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Excerpted from Southwest: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore by S. E. Schlosser
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