Was life on the range in the 1880s and 1890s anything like the hard riding, hard working, hard drinking shoot "em up images that moviegoers saw in old Westerns? Yes-and then some, the authentic documents in this collection tell us. Cowboys, sheepherders, ranchers and all those around them in Territorial New Mexico were engaged in constant life-and-death struggles. They battled with each other and with Indians. They endured blizzards, fires, drought, floods, disease and stampeding cattle. In one account, on the morning after Comanche Indians stole all their cattle, James Chisum told his daughter, "Cheer up, Sallie, the worst is yet to come." Also included in this collection are reports of cooperation and glimpses of daily happiness: the simple pleasure of riding the range; camaraderie during roundups; hot meals dished out from the chuck wagon; cow camp entertainments; trips to town for fandangos; a sheepherder resting beneath the constellations and his breakfast of "burraniates." There...