Customer Reviews

The Trampling Herd: The Story of the Cattle Range in America

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Novelist and historian Wellman here provides an indescribably superior one-volume story of the range-cattle business that reads as easily as fiction. Beginning with the Spanish roots of the Southwestern cattle ranches, he goes on to tell something of the early Anglo settlement of Texas, the troubles with the Comanches, the "hide-and-tallow empire" built up in antebellum days, the effects of the Civil War, the clashes with the Kansans, the founding of Abilene. He talks about stampedes and what was done about them, great trail towns and their lawmen, lean years and fat ones, the cowboy's work and play, and a gallery of unforgettable Western characters, good, bad, and indifferent. He studies the Lincoln County War, the coming of "bobwire," and why cowmen hated sheep. There is information I got from this book that I've found nowhere else. You will say the same. Every lover of Western social history should be glad to see it back in print.

Wellman, who died in 1966, was born in Oklahoma and worked on Wichita and Kansas City newspaper for much of his life, before moving to California and freelance writing. This book, written in 1939, is an excellent summary account of the cattle trade in the West, from 1580 to the early 1900s. He touches on just about everything having to do with his topic, from historical figures and events to equipment. I thought he spent a tad too much space on Billy the Kid, the Earps, and such (they don't seem that important to the cattle business), but he's an excellent writer. The first half of the book is the best. Recommended.