Forty Years' Gatherin's

Book Description

His horse gear, a bedroll and a warbag containing a change or two of clothes - these worldly goods were about all the old-time ranch hand could call his own. They were prized possessions, though, and together were usually referred to as "my forty year' gatherins."

The stories in this book are Spike Van Cleve's forty years' gatherins - cherished memories of rugged, honest living in the clean air and mountainous rangeland near Big Timber, Montana.

Spike was born, raised and lived until he died in this land he called "the prettiest country God ever made . . .heaven can't be any better than this." There, he and his family-like his Dad and Granddad before him-ran the Van Cleve ranch, now a 20,000 acre expanse under the Crazy Mountains in south central Montana.

Spike Van Cleve was a natural born storyteller who was educated at Harvard but received his "learning" on the Montana range riding his horses and doing an honest day's work. In this collection of true stories about the land, the people, the horses and the good old times, Spike shifts like the wind, as in his touching story of "Cody and Terry," when the fatal crack of Spike's rifle signals the merciful end to a close partnership between a tearful cowboy and his favorite work horses. This sensitive, poetic story earned Spike Van Cleve a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Customer Reviews:

A book for my permanent libary.......2006-01-14

I've met Spike's decendents, stayed at their ranch, and this is how I discovered these books by Spike Van Cleve around ten years ago. They are so good, I had to share them with friends and I loaned them out. Since they have disappeared, I need to buy them again! These are timeless stories that show the true flavor of the people and the country. I don't buy many books--but these I will buy twice.

HOME AND HUMOR ON THE RANGE.......2005-04-01

THIS IS A VERY FUNNY AND DANG GOOD READ IF YOU LOVE HORSES
AND THE WIDE OPEN COUNTRY OF MONTANA AND WYOMING. HE LETS YOU IN ON HOW HE UNDERSTANDS HORSES AND TELLS OF SOME WILD DAYS IN THE SADDLE.THERE ARE SOME GREAT DUDE RANCH STORIES ABOUT DIFFERENT GUESTS.IF HE WERE STILL ALIVE I WOULD DEFINITELY WANT TO GO TO HIS.HE IS A SPECIAL,COLORFUL AND DOWN HOME, HILARIOUS GUY.

In one book or less..............2002-03-02

This book describes the people, the attitude, and the lifestyle of Montana - from 1870 until today. The Crazy Mountains continue to evoke the same vast, colorful emotions from those of us who have had the priviledge to grow up beneath them. A must read for anybody who has lived in Montana - and a "should read" for anybody else. A colorful, vivid reminder of home - one of my favorites.

Outstanding.......2001-03-21

I lived in Montana for two years and a friend suggested I read this book. I bought a copy and could not put it down. After I finished it two days later, I bought his other book "A Day Late And A Dollar Short". Ten years later, I am still reading them. Spike doesn't just tell you a story, you live it. If you have any interest at all in ranch life, horses, family, humor, or Montana history; these should be on your list. You'll learn what "slaunchwise" humor and "going to the mountains" is all about.

It's unfortunate that he only wrote two books.

As your friend and fellow author put it, I too, "hope God gives you a horse" Spike.

An excellent story of everyday life in Melville, Montana~.......1999-11-18

This book is an excellent piece of work. I probably am somewhat biased as like the author, I too spent my formative years in the Big Open of Eastern Montana. I can certainly sympathize and relate to alot of what old Spike says about nature, family and ranch life in general.

A Texas Cowboy: or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Action/Adventure:YES Compelling:NO
What was it like to be a cowboy on cattle drives?
Give this guy your money!
Cowboy memoir classic. . .

A Texas Cowboy: or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (Penguin Classics)
Charles A. Siringo , and Richard Etulain
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0140437517
Release Date: 2000-12-05

Book Description

After a nomadic childhood, Charles Siringo signed on as a teenage cowboy for the noted Texas cattle king, Shanghai Pierce, and began a life that embraced all the hard work, excitement, and adventure readers today associate with the cowboy era. He "rid the Chisholm trail," driving 2,500 heads of cattle from Austin to Kansas; knew Tascosa--now a historic monument--when it was home to raucous saloons, red light districts, and a fair share of violence; and led a posse of cowboys in pursuit of Billy the Kid and his gang.

First published in 1885, Siringo's chronicle of his life as a itchy-footed boy, cowhand, range detective, and adventurer was one the first classics about the Old West and helped to romanticize the West and its myth of the American cowboy. Will Rogers declared, "That was the Cowboy's Bible when I was growing up."

Customer Reviews:

Action/Adventure:YES Compelling:NO.......2004-11-20

Although his interesting childhood kept you glued to the first quarter of the book, the rest is just a basic cowboy's life written with little or no techniques to keep you compelled to read every word. It is interesting to read, however, since he was a true to life cowboy. If I had to do over, I'd saved my money.

What was it like to be a cowboy on cattle drives?.......2004-10-25

This book has the answers. Exciting stories, concise writing (too concise sometimes). Siringo is honest about his faults. He obviously tries to capitlize on his tangential involvement with Billy the Kid (whom he knew and admired). Ever wished you could have a beer with a real Texas cowboy who was there when the cattle drives started? Well, here's your chance.

Give this guy your money!.......2004-09-27

A long, stupid and boring story that you MUST read and memorize at college for quiz tests. I still wonder how studying this most unimportant account of a most unimportant guy is going to help me become a better Mechanical Engineer.

Cowboy memoir classic. . ........2004-06-03

At the age of 28, when he wrote his memoir, Charles Siringo had already been a cowboy for 15 years. Born in 1855 on the Gulf Coast of Texas, Siringo worked in one job after another across the Midwest and Southwest, ranging from St. Louis to New Mexico. Still a teenager, he settled on cowboying at the time of the great cattle drives and was apparently very good at it, though no luckier than most at making a living from it. He worked for many years for the LX ranch in the Texas Panhandle, for a while rounding up cattle that had drifted away or were stolen. This occupation put him in New Mexico at the time of Billy the Kid, who was four years his junior. He never met Billy but knew men who did, and his imagination seems to have been fired by the stories they told about the pursuit and eventual shooting of this young outlaw. Though by his own account Siringo never shot a man himself, he was a dead aim with a six-shooter.

His memoir was written, as he admits in his preface, to make money "and lots of it." It's not great literature, beginning with his earliest childhood memories and recounting the events of his life with no particular sense of compelling storytelling. It's just one darn thing after another. But a reader with some patience will be rewarded in the latter part of the book as his adventures begin adding up to something like a real narrative - working for the LX as a range detective - and he begins emerging as more of a coherent protagonist in his own story.

Customer Reviews:

Close-Up View of Frontier Life .......2007-06-09

While there have been many books written about the settlement of the American West, relatively few of them have been first-person accounts. And though I had never heard of Fifty Years on the Old Frontier or its author until a recent visit to the Nebraska State Park which occupies the site of James Cook's old Agate Springs Ranch, after reading I came to the conclusion that Cook's book is one of those that are essential reading for anyone who wants a fairly unbiased close-up view of frontier life.
Though Cook came to the Plains and to the West as a relatively uneducated greenhorn, by the end of his life he had developed into a man of much empirical knowledge and understanding. His writing style is not at all dry and the reader will find Cook to be a very engaging writer whose observations are leavened with a wry humor that makes him want to finish the book in one sitting.
Maybe I like it so much because I've been to all the places of which he writes and I can visualize the countryside as I read along. Cook was a real polymath as far as practical living went, and his abilities served him well in an environment which demanded so much of every person. I enjoy most his stories of the cattle drives as he learned the hard way how to be a cowboy, and those of his time as a ranch manager in Southwestern New Mexico, a country I know well. But I also enjoy reading of his interactions with the leaders of the Plains Indians, many of whom saw in Cook a kindred spirit.
Cook's life in the west spanned the period from when the Central Plains and the Southwest were first being settled and everything was wide open, to the time where everything was settled, fenced-in, and criscrossed with railways and highways. He saw the buffalo, the antelope, and the grizzly nearly eliminated and he saw the Indians go from being masters of the Plains to being reduced to living on puny reservations and reliant on the whim of the white man for basic necessities. He writes of this with wisdom gained through hard experience, balance, and a tinge of sadness for the passing of the old days and the old ways.
If you love the West and would like an authentic, unvarnished look at the way it once was, then this book is for you. Judging by the sales ranking on amazon, it appears to have been almost forgotten. Many thanks to the University of Oklahoma Press for keeping it alive.

One Man's Realities in the American Old West.......2003-06-03

James Cook's "Fifty Years on the Old Frontier" is an autobiographical narrative of his life experiences in the American West. Cook's endeavors during the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century encompassed a whole host of occupations: cattle drover, tour guide, hunter, rancher, and military scout. Cook eventually married into money and retired to a ranch near Agate, Nebraska where he consorted with Red Cloud and other old Sioux warriors. He also collaborated with several university professors on fossil digs located around his ranch, eventually becoming an amateur scientist in his own right. Cook's accounts of his adventures in the Old West provide a compelling insight about the realities and myths of America's movement across the North American continent. James Cook died in 1942.

The beginning chapters of the book outline the author's work as a cattle popper and drover along the old cattle trails through Texas and Kansas. The dangers that threatened the well being of these tough as nails trail hands constitutes the bulk of Cook's narrative. What quickly becomes apparent is that these guys were not the dapper dandies we see in films and fiction; they worked hard everyday to get those longhorns up to Kansas and to the railroad. Cook recounts the disagreements amongst drovers, an experience with hail and a tornado, stampedes, the threat of wild animals, and the dangers posed by Indians. A separate chapter discusses the fate of the wild mustangs, yet another sad chapter in the annals of the conquest of the West. Once the businessmen moved in and discovered a market for horses, they rounded up the mustangs by the thousands through crude trapping techniques and by depriving Indians of their stocks. Horses injured in the process were ruthlessly shot by the trappers. The picture that emerges from the author's narrative about trail life is one of greedy exploitation leading to environmental damage.

Relations with Indians are a central theme of the book. The movie image of tremendous battles between natives and American military forces does not find expression in this story. Instead, Cook portrays Indians as just another obstacle to the settlement of the West. Cattle drivers had to pay attention to Indian raiders who sought to steal horses and cattle, but it was more important to worry about weather and stampedes. In the last section of the book, Indians play a bigger role in the story. The author outlines in detail his relationship with the Sioux after they had been confined to the reservation. Another chapter deals with the Geronimo uprising in New Mexico, an incident Cook experienced first hand during his tenure as a ranch manager in the area. He takes the opportunity of the uprising to tell the truth about the Indians and the military forces during the campaign. According to the author, Geronimo and his Apache warriors did not fight the military head on, but relied on hit and run tactics with strategic retreats to Mexico to stay one step ahead of the law. The military relied heavily on scouts, often mixed blood Indians, in order to track down the rogue Indians. Geronimo eventually surrendered when an army officer talked him into giving himself up.

Cook's interest in the West is not a broad picture of western history, but rather groupings of anecdotes about his individual experiences in the area. The reader often has to read between the lines of these engaging stories in order to ascertain the reality of the situation on the frontier. For example, Cook discusses in depth the time the Sioux on the reservation asked him to be their government appointed agent. The author provides several letters of endorsement written on his behalf by politicians and bankers in Nebraska and Wyoming. The letters praise Cook as a man of the West on excellent terms with the local Indian population. A cynic can see the larger dynamic tensions between East and West in these letters. The locals want one of their own in the job because up to this point the position was always held by someone from back east. Moreover, a western agent could deliver lucrative supply contracts to western businesses and perform favors for western politicians. Why else would bankers take the time to write a recommendation letter to the government? It certainly had little to do with goodwill towards the Sioux Indians, especially since this wheedling went on at roughly the same time as the Ghost Dance fiasco.

Book Description

Charlie Siringo punched cattle for Shanghai Pierce, “rid the Chisholm trail, “ once roped a buffalo, and joined in the chase for Billy the Kid. His chronicle of his years as itchy-footed boy, cowhand, range detective, and adventurer was originally published in 1885.

Customer Reviews:

One of Dobie's Favorites.......1999-10-15

The most authentic book ever written about the Texas cowboy. J. Frank Dobie said that "no record of cowboy life has supplanted this rollicky, reckless, realistic chronicle" and that it is "the most-real, non-fiction book on cowboy life." Siringo worked as a cowboy for Shanghai Pearce, rode with a posse of Texas cowboys to New Mexico to track down Billy the Kid and took part in numerous cattle drives. A Texas history classic.

Wonderful tales of true cowboy life.......1997-07-09

Ok. At this point in your life you're pretty far away from watching Bonanza, Gunsmoke, etc. with your family on that old black & white Zenith. You no longer have the toy six-shooter and cowboy hat that were the joy of a long ago Christmas or birthday. You've forgotten whether you preferred to play the sheriff or the outlaw, but you probably remember the name of your imaginary horse. Read this book. Not because it's great literature (the writing is merely serviceable) but because it reminds you why the image of the cowboy era is so powerful and enduring. And it's all true. Wonderful read

A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-two Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency

Average customer rating:

charlie siringo-one of the west's best kept secret heroes
Siringo's Best
Great Western adventures!

A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-two Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency
Charles A. Siringo
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Law Enforcement | Criminal Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0803291892

Book Description

After years of cowboying, Charles A. Siringo had settled down to store-keeping in Caldwell, Kansas, when a blind phrenologist, traveling through, took the measure of his "mule head" and told him that he was "cut out" for detective work. Thereupon, Siringo joined the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1886. A Cowboy Detective chronicles his twenty-two years as an undercover operative in wilder parts of the West, where he rode with the lawless, using more stratagems and guises than Sherlock Holmes to bring them to justice and escaping violent death more often than Dick Tracy. He survived the labor riots at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 1892 (his testimony helped convict eighteen union leaders), hounded moonshiners in the Appalachians, and chased Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. Once described as "a small wiry man, cold and steady as a rock" and "born without fear," Charlie Siringo became a favorite of high-ups in the Pinkerton organization. Nevertheless, the Pinkertons, ever sensitive to criticism, went to court to block publication of Siringo's book. Frank Morn, in his introduction to this Bison Books edition, discusses the changes that resulted from two years of litigation. Finally published in 1912 without Pinkerton in the title or the text, A Cowboy Detective has Siringo working for the "Dickensen Detective Agency" and meeting up with the likes of "Tim Corn," whom every western buff will recognize. The deeper truth of Siringo's book remains. As J. Frank Dobie wrote, "His cowboys and gunmen were not of Hollywood and folklore. He was an honest reporter." Frank Morn is a professor of criminal justice at Illinois State University and author of The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (1982).

Customer Reviews:

charlie siringo-one of the west's best kept secret heroes.......2006-08-21

This is a great book if you're into the American West, The Wild Bunch, or just a detective fan.
Charlie Siringo must have been one of the toughest men who ever lived...15 years in the saddle as a cowboy, followed by 22 years as a Pinkerton detective!
Charlie writes as a detective would...mostly, it's just the facts. He writes in an easy to read style that seems to flow from him in a natural manner. His stories are amazing, and he was surely a 'walking national treasure'in terms of his first hand knowledge of the American West 1865-1900.
I can't believe he is so 'forgotten' as one of the west's real and true heroes. A terrific insight into the times and the man.

Siringo's Best.......2006-03-17

Charles Siringo was the real deal, the rare 1870's cowboy who experienced the trail rides of the Wild West, but also felt the need and had the desire to put his experiences in writing. The stories in his books seem to be honest and legit, not inflated or self-indulgent. He was a man of great courage and resoursefulness, and the stories in this book are full of real-life examples. I have read several of Siringo's writings, and have found this book to be the most enjoyable and fascinating of them all.

Great Western adventures!.......2001-03-19

True life exploits of Charles Roy Siringo in the old west bringing many fugitives to justive while enduring hard ships!

100 Years of Cowboy Stories (Roundup Books)

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A Must Have for Western Lovers

100 Years of Cowboy Stories (Roundup Books)

Manufacturer: Red Deer Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

A Must Have for Western Lovers.......2000-05-12

My dad loved this so much for father's day that he's forcing me to read it. He told me about how he got kinda misty when he read the stories and thought about the days when everyone wanted to be a cowboy or an astronaut. Thanks amazon.com for bringing back those memories. Happy Trails

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70 years a cowboy: A biography
T. B Long
Manufacturer: Western Printers Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Animal Husbandry | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007IYJ1Q

Circle-Dot: A true story of cowboy life forty years ago

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Circle-Dot: A true story of cowboy life forty years ago
M. H Donoho
Manufacturer: Monotyped and printed by Crane & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00086AMUE

The First 100 Years: A History of Arizona Blacks

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The First 100 Years: A History of Arizona Blacks

Manufacturer: Relmco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Covering the earliest cowboys, ranchhands, prospectors and pioneeres, this book deftly relates the history of the black migration into Arizona and the role they have played in her early history and covering up into the mid 1900s. With many b/w photographs, this is a unique offering that furthers the understanding of the rich Black heritage in Western US history.

Book Description

This volume can be divided into two parts: a purely mathematical part with contributions on finance mathematics, interactions between geometry and physics and different areas of mathematics; another part on the popularization of mathematics and the situation of women in mathematics.

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concise

Coping With Blushing (Overcoming Common Problems) (Overcoming Common Problems)
Robert Edelmann
Manufacturer: Sheldon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Dying of Embarrassment: Help for Social Anxiety & Phobia

10 Simple Solutions to Shyness: How to Overcome Shyness, Social Anxiety & Fear of Public Speaking (10 Simple Solutions)

Painfully Shy: How to Overcome Social Anxiety and Reclaim Your Life

Beyond Shyness: How to Conquer Social Anxieties

Rosacea: Your Self-Help Guide

ASIN: 0859699196

Product Description

This book suggests relaxation exercises and confidence-boosting measures, which can help to make blushing less severe, and minimize the impact that it has on life. By teaching ways of coping with embarrassment and social difficulties, Robert Edelmann helps people overcome the barriers to a successful social life and career. Table of Contents: Acknowledgements Preface to the Second Edition Introduction 1 Embarrassment and blushing 2 Why is Blushing? 3 Who suffers? 4 Coping with blushing: Some preliminary comments 5 Calming yourself down 6 Re-evaluating and redirecting thoughts 7 Developing confidence 8 Putting the package together and monitoring change 9 Blushing: A personal account Useful addresses Further reading Index

Customer Reviews:

concise .......2007-08-10

This is an excellent book particularly for people who live in areas that blushing is more of an oddity beacuse of skin color. It truly helps for people to see that they are not alone with this problem. It has concise helpful tips for overcoming shyness.

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Coping with Blushing

Manufacturer: SHELDON PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GYTHSQ

Book Description

Juices to boost vitality, provide protection, cleanse the body, and much more.

More Super Juice follows the highly successful formula of the author's original book by featuring juices for various health benefits: power, long-term vitality, cleansing the system, protection from disease, and increased sex drive. Michael van Straten includes chapters on mood-boosters, brain-boosters and slimming juices, with a section on healing that offers detox diets, a pick-yourself-up juice diet, and an immune-boosting juice diet.

Recipes include:

Instant energizer: carrots, apple, kiwi fruit and parsley
Sweet surrender: banana, yogurt, watermelon, honey, ice cubes
Long-life lemonade: carrots, radishes, apples, lemon, beet, sauerkraut
Whiskey Mc Vital: oranges, lime, lemon, green grapes, ginger, whiskey, boiling water
Wrinkle zapper: apples and cherries.

More Super Juice also suggests juices to try for dealing with common conditions such as headaches, colds, insomnia and menstrual problems. With juices to benefit everyone, this book is a super resource.

Super Juice: Juicing for Health and Healing (Superfoods)

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Super Juice: Juicing for Health and Healing (Superfoods)
Michael van Straten
Manufacturer: Whitecap Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Healthy | Special Diet | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Juice | Drinks & Beverages | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1552854442

Book Description

Fruit drinks found in stores can have as little as ten percent juice, and may contain sugar, sweeteners, and a host of chemicals. Is that really what you want inside your body? Freshly made juices from fruits and vegetables overflow with goodness, and SUPER JUICES promises a number of delicious and exotic recipes to help boost energy, vitality, and natural immunity.

Super Juice: Juicing for Health and Healing

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Super Juice: Juicing for Health and Healing

Manufacturer: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I2LGIU

Product Description

Sensational, succulent juices that boost your health, healing drinks with dazzling flavors, beverages that repair the damage done by the night before...

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