Best of
Western

2001

Dusty Britches


Marcia Lynn McClure - 2001
    Why today? she wondered. Why was her memory tarrying on that young cowhand from five years ago? ]Well]now, a deep, masculine voice said from behind her, if it ain't Miss Dusty Britches! Dusty felt the color drain from her face]felt the blood seem to drain from the rest of her body and puddle in her feet. She felt dizzy and nauseated all at once. ]There was only one person on the whole of the earth who ever called her Dusty Britches, and that was the cowboy who gave her the nickname in the first place. ...Dusty slowly turned around to see standing before her a man whose eyes were those belonging to a boy she'd once known--a boy who had grown into a man. Angelina Hunter was seriously minded...and it was a good thing. Her fathers ranch needed a woman who could endure the strenuous work of ranch life. Since her mothers death, Angelina had been that woman. She had no time for frivolity; no time for a less severe side of life. Not when there was so much to be done--hired hands to feed, a widower father to care for and an often ridiculously light-hearted younger sister to worry about. No. Angelina Hunter had no time for the things most young women her age enjoyed. And yet, Angelina had not always been so hardened. There had been a time when she boasted a fun, flirtatious nature even more delightful than her sister Beccas--a time when her imagination soared with adventurous, romantic dreams. But that all ended years before at the hand of one man. Her heart turned to stone]safely becoming void of any emotion save impatience and indifference. Until the day her dreamsreturned, the day that the very maker of her broken heart rode back into her life. As the dust settled from the cattle drive that brought him back, would Angelinas heart be softened? Would she learn to hope again? Would her long-lost dreams become a blessed reality?

Lawdog: The Life and Times of Hayden Tilden


J. Lee Butts - 2001
    Lee Butts! Legendary as the meanest, most fearless lawdog of the Old West, Hayden Tilden sometimes blurs the line between U.S. Marshal and hired assassin. His adventures all began with one murderous, cold-blooded bastard: Saginaw Bob Magruder. The depraved killer butchered Tilden’s entire family and hurled the young man into a ruthless, bloody crusade for vengeance and a career as a U. S. Marshal. Tracking down Magruder will be just the beginning of Tilden’s adventures, bringing his own brand of justice to the wild and lawless West. “Lawdog has it all. I couldn’t put it down.” —Jack Ballas, author of A Town Afraid “Lawdog should assume its rightful place beside other Western classics.” —Peter Brandvold, bestselling author of Once Hell Freezes Over About the Author: J. Lee Butts is the author of 22 published books and numerous magazine articles and short works. His book Brotherhood of Blood was runner-up for the Western Writers of America Spur Award in 2005. He’s worn many hats over the years (teacher, administrator, pool manager, IBM supervisor, and western author), and he and his late wife lived everywhere from Los Angeles to Dallas. Currently he’s hanging those hats back in White Hall, Arkansas.

Son of the Hawk


Charles G. West - 2001
    Her father did not approve of the union and stole her away—unaware that she was carrying the white man's child.She married a member of her tribe to give her son a father, naming the child White Eagle. A war party of Sioux slaughters the Shoshoni camp, but the child escapes.With no place to run, White Eagle decides to find his white father.

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mc Carthy: Teacher Guide (Novel Units)


Gloria Levine - 2001
    The legwork is done for you. The chapter-by-chapter guides incorporate research-based, high-order reading, writing and thinking activities. (This is NOT the paperback novel.)

Reese


Lori Handeland - 2001
    Mary hires Reese, the mysterious, and reluctant, leader of a band of deadly Confederate veterans, to protect them.Reese is haunted by the war and what he did during it. The only constant in his life are the five men willing to come to his side whenever he calls them.Though Mary prides herself on managing everyone and anything, she can't manage Reese or her feelings for him. Reese doesn't believe he is worthy of loyalty and devotion; he certainly isn't worthy of love. In Rock Creek, with Mary, he learns differently.

Red Thunder


David Matheson - 2001
    Steeped in authentic cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs, Red Thunder follows a family band of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe through the eyes of Sun Boy and Rainbow Girl as they struggle to hold on to what is truly precious and sacred about life...all life.

Scorpion, a Good Bad Horse


Will James - 2001
    "That horse, " a cowboy says, "is going to be either mighty good or mighty bad." Tim, an outlaw on the run, trades his tired horse for Scorpion. The horse acts truly wicked only when Tim makes poor decisions--keeping him out of trouble.

Yellowstone & Grand Teton Wildlife


Henry Holdsworth - 2001
    But most people are there only in the summer. This collection brings everyone year-round coverage of all the parks' animals, large and small. In turn beautiful, amusing, and artistic, Holdworth's photographs take readers into all corners of the parks, in all seasons.Henry Holdsworth has spent two decades living in and photographing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem while not traveling on assignment. His images have appeared in many national periodicals and books. He and his family live in Jackson, Wyoming.

Rancher's Law: Some Called It A Crime. Some Called It Revenge. He Called It Justice...


Dusty Richards - 2001
    

Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter: An Account of Hickok’s Gunfights


Joseph G. Rosa - 2001
    . . . Easy access to a gun and whiskey coupled with gambling was the cause of most gunfights--few of which bore any resemblance to the gentlemanly duel of earlier times. . . . Hickok’s gunfights were unusual in that most of them were ‘fair’ fights, not just killings resulting from rage, jealousy over a woman, or drunkenness. And, the majority of his encounters were in his role as lawman or as an individual upholding the law.”--from Wild Bill Hickok, GunfighterWild Bill Hickok (1837–1876) was a Civil War spy and scout, Indian fighter, gambler, and peace officer. He was also one of the greatest gunfighters in the West. His peers referred to his reflexes as “phenomenal” and to his skill with a pistol as “miraculous.” In Wild Bill Hickok, Gunfighter, Joseph G. Rosa, the world’s foremost authority on Hickok, provides an informative examination of Hickok’s many gunfights.Rosa describes the types of guns used by Hickok and illustrates his use of the plains’ style of “quick draw,” as well as examining other elements of the Hickok legend. He even reconsiders the infamous “dead man’s hand” allegedly held by Hickok when he was shot to death at age thirty-nine while playing poker. Numerous photographs and drawings accompany Rosa’s down-to-earth text.

Living In The Country Growing Weird: A Deep Rural Adventure


Dennis Parks - 2001
    Parks and his wife were attracted to Tuscarora's isolation and beautiful setting, and they believed that it might be a healthy environment in which to raise their two small sons. This is Parks' account of his family's life in Tuscarora, a tiny settlement whose population even forty years later numbers fewer than twenty permanent residents.Parks created a pottery school that attracts students from around the world and developed for himself an international reputation as the creator of powerful, innovative works in clay. Meanwhile, he and his family had to master the skills required of those who choose to live in the back country--growing and hunting their own food, renovating or building from scratch the structures they needed for residences or studios, resolving conflicts with neighbors, inventing their own amusements. The transformation from middle-class urbanity to small-town simplicity is, as Parks reveals, a lurching and sometimes hilarious process, and the achievement of self-sufficiency is similarly fraught with unexpected challenges.

There's Always a Trail / Home in the Valley


Louis L'Amour - 2001
    When the stranger, Handy, offered to track down his stolen money for a stake in the CB range, Bailey had nothing more to lose. But his pretty hot-tempered daughter, Ann, was livid. Certain that Handy couldn't find the money unless he'd had a hand in stealing it. Handy'd hit paydirt when Miss Bailey burst in to damn him for a liar and a thief, grab the loot and send all his plans to blazes. One minute, he'd found Bailey's money; the next, he faced a shoot-out with the pack of thieving villains who held both Ann and his future hostage - and a challenge to prove he wasn't a thief to the woman he loved. Home in the ValleySteve Mehan had done the impossible: driven a herd of cattle from the Nevada range to California in the dead of winter! To the north the passes were blocked with snow, to the south lay miles of trackless and nearly waterless desert. But now the cattle the five ranchers had entrusted to him were safe. And he was back in time to pay off Jake Hitson, the moneylending rancher who'd stop at nothing to get their land. But Mehan had a little time to rest before Hitson began to gloat. The bank in town had failed - the money was gone. Steve didn't hesitate. He had no choice. Now he'd ride hell-for-leather from Sacramento to Portland - six hundred and forty-five miles - with only one hope in a million. He had to beat the steamer to the Portland bank branch and get the ranchers' money back before the bank got the news.