Cowboys and Kansas
Stories from the Tallgrass Prairie

Jim Hoy (Author)

9780806128672

Paperback / softback, published 15 March 1995

244 pages, 11 black & white illustrations
21.6 x 14 x 1.6 cm, 0.299 kg

""Cowboys and Kansas offers . . . a vibrant, fascinating facet of the modern American West. It will have a broad appeal for the general history reader and to the fan of western or range life. To the folklorist and social historian, it is a mother lode of primary source material."" - Lawrence Clayton, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Hardin Simmons University

""This is a very enjoyable and instructive collection of writings from a proud native son. Kansans will swell with pride. Others will find fascinating tidbits to compare with cowboy and ranch life elsewhere in the West."" - Richard W. Slatta, Journal of the West.

In Cowboys and Kansas, Jim Hoy educates and entertains us with essays and tales about cowboy life that are based on personal experience, folklore, and history. Introduced to cowboys - famous and obscure, historical and contemporary - we hear them tell about troublesome horses they have ridden, rattlesnakes they have encountered, and outlaws they have met. We experience the details of the cowhand's daily work (roping, counting, and shipping cattle, riding with a trail herd) and play (rodeos, horse races, roping contests, poetry). We meet women drovers, Wild West show riders, and jockeys in a section on cowgirls, and we learn the history of cowboy boots, pants, hats, and saddles.