“My journey to Utah’s Redd Ranch takes place the day before Thanksgiving. The drive northward through Monument Valley and along the edge of Canyonlands National Park takes my breath away. These kinds of spectacular views don’t encourage a photographer to be in a hurry. In fact, the landforms are so amazing that I have to […]
“Ralph and Darla have never forgotten the dustbowl lessons of how fragile this land is. Before Ralph took over ranch operations from his father, wildlife had been scarce for the previous sixty years, killed off by homesteaders and unstable environmental practices. Now whitetail deer, birds, wild pigs, and other creatures native to this Oklahoma region […]
“Every spring, the Vermilion Ranch breeds about 5,000 cows by artificial insemination. They sell 90% of their bull calves; it’s not uncommon for the ranch to sell 600 head of outstanding breeding bulls and over 4,000 commercial Angus heifers at their annual Fall auction. They keep the remaining 10% of bull calves for their own […]
“The Nunn sons became involved in the last of the “range wars” of the New Mexico Territory. There was virtually no law enforcement in the Territory in those days, so it was common for a gun to settle disputes. When the “good guys” won a battle, it was another step of bringing peace and security […]
Night after night, sixteen-year-old Libby Smith listened to the cries and screams of fellow prisoners beaten and killed by their Indian captors. Warriors dragged Libby to the gauntlet on several different occasions. This deadly sport required the prisoners to fight through two lines of men wielding clubs and tomahawks. Few made it through alive. The […]
I cross the railroad tracks parallel to the two-lane highway, and the road immediately turns to gravel. Soon I pull up to an empty house. It seems that no one is around, so I climb out of my truck, wondering where I should start looking for the owners. Suddenly a young girl zooms out from […]
