Related Topics:  Cowboys/Ranching, West Texas

The Last Campfire by Barney Nelson

ISBN 0-9657985-1-8 Hardback
     Retail: $29.95  Page Count: 171,  Size: 9.5" x 6.25"
ISBN 0-9657985-2-6 Trade Paper
     Retail: $14.95  Page Count: 171,  Size: 9.0" x 6.0"

Everyone loves a cowboy - the dashing hero of the West who rides the range, ropes wild steers, sleeps under the stars, and sports high-topped boots and a ten-gallon hat.  But the world seems to view him from one of two angles.  Either he vanished with the last trail drive, or he is alive, young and virile, riding broncs and flashing silver spurs.  Between these two extremes lie the real cowboy an the intense, formative years of change that transformed the Texas cattle industry from trail driving into modern ranching.

Barney Nelson traces this transition period through the story of Ted Gray, a successful cattleman who began his career during the Great Depression as a thirty-dollar-a-month cowboy in West Texas.  Gray gradually acquired his own land and cattle, in part during a twenty-three-year stint on the Kokernot 06 Ranch.  Along the way, as he broke broncs, fought screwworms, and weathered droughts, Gray developed certain convictions to be passed on to future cowboys: most importantly, that it is still possible to own some cows.  Gray wants today's cowboys to eat their beans, patch their britches, stay in the country, and learn the cattle business.

Nelson, by allowing Ted Gray to tell his own story, has painted a vivid picture of life on the range with insights peculiar to those who have lived and loved cattle ranching.  Her book will fascinate ranchers, businessmen, cowboy and western buffs, and historians of Texas, the Southwest, and the cattle industry.

Growing up around Jacksboro, Texas, on the eve of the Great Depression, Ted Gray admired the look and manner of the few old cowpunchers and ranchers who still inhabited the region.  Not anxious to follow the plow as did his father, Gray struck out on his own at the age of fifteen to "make a hand" among the cowboys of the West.  Gray slowly climbed the ladder of responsibility from cowhand to wagon boss to ranch manager and finally to ownership of his own land and livestock.  This fascinating account of his education in the saddle smells of burned hide and choking dust and creaks authentically like saddle leather and bowed legs.  But The Last Campfire is much more than a collection of twice-told tales from another stove-up cowboy.  Ted Gray has something more to say to us.  His life and philosophy inspire and captivate.  Seldom has the oral tradition been better utilized in a published work.

Barney Nelson is a free-lance writer and photographer who has contributed numerous articles to such magazines as Western Horseman, Persimmon Hill, and The Cattleman.  Her photographs have appeared on several magazine covers, in major advertising campaigns, and in museum exhibits.  When The Last Campfire was written, Nelson and family lived on the Willow Springs Camp of the Kokernot 06 Ranch.  Today she is a college professor at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, teaching writing and literature.

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