Trapped!

Trapped!

Patricio Valenzuela, the hacendado (ranch owner) of the Agua Fria hacienda eight miles east of Cucurpe in Sonora, Mexico, is alerted by his vaqueros of raiding Apaches who have butchered one of his cows and an ox at Tapacadepe. Valenzuela hits the trail with 30...
Apache White Captive Child Santiago McKinn

Apache White Captive Child Santiago McKinn

On a balmy September morning in the little valley east of the Mimbres Mountains in southwest New Mexico, seventeen-year-old Martin McKinn and his eleven-year-old brother Santiago were herding cattle near their ranch on Gallina Creek, a tributary to the Mimbres River....
The Legendary West

The Legendary West

The West conjures images: sky-touching-earth horizons, uncharted wilderness, turbulent rivers, an unbounded Milky Way flung across the heavens. Howling coyotes, thundering bison herds, ferocious grizzly bears and ghostly antelope. Original inhabitants building...
Lucky Cuss

Lucky Cuss

The tall, lanky prospector brushed back his thick, matted, unkempt hair and looked out across a jumble of high mesa hills, scanning the rough terrain on the east side of the San Pedro River. Somewhere out there, he was convinced, lay the vast riches he had long...
Cole Younger

Cole Younger

If I had to choose a favorite outlaw, without hesitation I’d say, “Cole Younger.” Besides being a “good man to ride the river with,” he had many good qualities compared to the typical outlaw of his day. A few years ago the late author Jack Koblas told me a poignant...