Deep trails in the old West
Subtitle: a frontier memoir
By: by Frank Clifford ; edited by Frederick Nolan
Contributors: Nolan, Frederick W., 1931-
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Norman
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
ISBN-13: 9780806141862
Subjects: History; Friends and associates; Frontier and pioneer life; Biography; Cowboys
Description: Cowboy and drifter Frank Clifford lived a lot of lives?and raised a lot of hell?in the first quarter of his life. The number of times he changed his name?Clifford being just one of them?suggests that he often traveled just steps ahead of the law. During the 1870s and 1880s his restless spirit led him all over the Southwest, crossing the paths of many of the era?s most notorious characters, most notably Clay Allison and Billy the Kid. More than just an entertaining and informative narrative of his Wild West adventures, Clifford?s memoir also paints a picture of how ranchers and ordinary folk lived, worked, and stayed alive during those tumultuous years. Written in 1940 and edited and annotated by Frederick Nolan, Deep Trails in the Old West is likely one of the last eyewitness histories of the old West ever to be discovered. As Frank Clifford, the author rode with outlaw Clay Allison?s Colfax County vigilantes, traveled with Charlie Siringo, cowboyed on the Bell Ranch, contended with Apaches, and mined for gold in Hillsboro. In 1880 he was one of the Panhandle cowboys sent into New Mexico to recover cattle stolen by Billy the Kid and his compañeros?and in the process he got to know the Kid dangerously well. In unveiling this work, Nolan faithfully preserves Clifford?s own words, providing helpful annotation without censoring either the author?s strong opinions or his racial biases. For all its roughness, Deep Trails in the Old West is a rich resource of frontier lore, customs, and manners, told by a man who saw the Old West at its wildest?and lived to tell the tale.--amazon.com.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Early days in Cimarron; title: The Colfax County war; title: Gold mines and Indians; title: Mexicana; title: The Bell Ranch; title: An expedition and a capture; title: The winter at White Oaks; title: Billy the Kid escapes from jail; title: Various stories concerning Billy the Kid and contradictory stories of his death; title: Back to the Canadian; title: Life on the staked plains; title: Cowboy equipment in the '70s; title: The fall roundup on the staked plains; title: Rambling around; title: Drifting; title: A changed world; title: The expanding years; title: Mexican experiences at Emporia; title: Arkansas.