Cimarron lies nestled on the east side of the Cimarron Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northeastern New Mexico. In the 1870s it earned a reputation as a wild and wooly frontier town that resulted from an unfortunate land grant war by which the little settlement justifiably earned its name—Cimarron—meaning wild, untamed, or unbroken.
Cimarron has not outlived its reputation. For better or worse, writers began recounting the events of its turbulent years almost before the last gun shots were fired. Some embellished the truth both in book and periodical form in an attempt to make a good story even better. This compilation represents a cross-section of writings about individuals who, for good or bad, played some part in the historical or legendary tradition of Cimarron. Although some of the entries are better documented historically than others, all are good stories and equally important to Cimarron’s tradition.
