Customer Reviews

A Texas Frontier: The Clear Fork Country and Fort Griffin, 1849-1887

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While researching the town of Griffin for my own work, I was referred to Dr. Cashion's book by the curators of the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, TX. Not only is this book indispensible in any serious study of the town of Griffin, which was a hub of the cattle and buffalo trade in the mid-1800's (through which many notable western personas passed, such as John Selman -the killer of John Wesley Hardin, and the fabled poker queen Lottie Deno), it is also a fascinating account of the birth, life and eventual demise of a classic frontier boom town. Dr. Cashion's book, while also covering the whole of the Clear Fork Country (and also happily, its overlooked minority inhabitants), could almost be considered a biography of Ft. Griffin, if we can imagine the town itself as a personality. The book gives a fine description of the natural land as it was seen by its first inhabitants (and first European explorers), and goes on to describe the various elements (political, natural, social etc.) which led to the settling of the area. Griffin is treated with special interest, from its early beginnings as a military outpost, to its heyday as an outfitting and entertainment capital for buffalo hunters and later cattle outfits, to its oil days, and on through to its eventual decline. There are a great many interesting photographs, both of the land, of old surveying maps, and of the people who populated the area, white, black, and Indian. Of particular interest is the chapter `Just Plain Old Folks,' which records many of the daily doings, trials, and tribulations of the everyday citizens. Dr. Cashion writes with equal and obvious passion of the rawboned hunters and cattlemen, the violent sometimes gunmen like John Larn and Selman, who used both sides of the law to their own ends, the retired buffalo soldiers, just trying to make their living somewhere between the harsh trials of the land and the distrust of their white neighbors, and the women and children who found themselves living and working in lonely cabins far from the company of friends and neighbors. For this alone the book is worth it, but also worthy are the revisionist-minded attempts of the author to debunk the many stereotypes and outright falsehoods about the area which have passed as history for so long. Griffin the town is no more the blood-soaked, bullet-riddled Sodom of the west that it has sometimes been portrayed as in fiction and some history (an old biography of Doc Holliday comes to mind, and is once referred to by the author) than is any other myriad of western towns which has ever romantically laid claim to that misnomer. The stories of its people however, are no less interesting, and Dr. Cashion's book proves that. Highly recommended!

Forget the things you think you know about the history of this area. Dr. Cashion spent enormous amounts of time and effort tracking down the truth about events which have become part of Texas folklore--and has debunked a lot of what we "thought" we knew in the process. His books are as fascinating as his University lectures...hang on for a great read!

Well written! enjoyable to read. I had Dr. Cashion at Sam Houston State this fall. His class is great, it was a great learning expirience. The book is wonderful. Although I missed a couple of points about the book but that's ok.

I found this book at the dusty museum at Buffalo Gap, Texas,

and was enthralled!

Somebody has written the DIFINITIVE history of my early stompin'

grounds,

(the area whose back roads I traversed in my early 20's,

shooting .22 rimfire bullets into every road sign I encountered,

(statute of limitations HAS expired)

and as I read it,

I detected nary a false note.

Ty Cushion is a righteous dude,

(for a Baptist).