The Big Ranch Country

A Double Mountain Books' classic reissue, this is a story-book travelogue covering the big ranches of West and South Texas. Williams made many informal excursions to study their history, founders and owners, picking up facts, folklore and range gossip along the way. He documents the fifteen largest ranches in Texas and the ways they adapted to changing conditions in the ranching industry. Photographs and maps illustrate the text. Though it never received wide circulation following its publication in 1954, ""The Big Ranch Country"" has been recognized as a standard work by ranch historians. J.W. Williams wrote often in books and newspapers about West Texas, and his work is still cited by authors and scholars. 'The greatest merits of ""The Big Ranch Country"" are its personal, almost conversational style, and the very fact that it is dated. [M]odern-day realities do not impose themselves on this nostalgic work' - Ty Cashion. 'A valuable addition to the collector of Texana and to the mid-century reader who might have wondered just where the large range properties are and how they got that way' - William M. Pearce, ""Southwestern Historical Quarterly"", April 1956.

Where the Big Ranches Begin That was Hoss Flesh, Neighbor! In the Kingdom of Burk Burnett Long Whiskers and Riches The Prince of Good Neighbors Post Toasties and Plowed Ground Thee had Better Come Out West The End of the World in 1877 Sixty Years from Scotland Cow Country Gossip Inside the Pitchfork Gate A Buffalo Hunter Camped Here Ranch Lore from the Pease to the Wichita Burk Burnett did not Own Boom Town The Greatest Ranches Today The Nation's Beefsteak Supply