by Harry E. Chrisman
Scholars believe this book is a work that is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. Sara suggested this book to provide a counterpoint to the picture of cattlemen and the range wars of the latter 19th and early 20th century painted by Marie Sandoz in both Old Jules and The Son of the Gamblin’ Man. As all of you will recall, Sandoz was no fan of the ranchers.
According to “Shawn” in Goodreads, aside from the clear endorsement of the cattleman’s point of view, this book is “spectacular. Chrisman describes the harshness of the trails, snakes, coyotes, the terrible boredom and unrelenting work, the god-awful weather, the horrors of crossing swollen streams, the million and one ways to die on a trail ride NOT involving gun play…..”The ladder of rivers” is the descriptive language the drovers used to describe the northward climb upon the rivers to their markets; the Red, the Solomon, the Arkansas, the Smokey Hill, the Platte, etc. This is a must read for anyone interested in ranching, cattle drives and the miserable and deadly settlement of the plains.”
***
The book is available as a “custom print” from Amazon and other sellers. You can read it online at no charge here. The Internet Archive offers a choice of formats—PDF or photocopy of the book pages.