A hundred years of horse tracks: The story of the Gray Ranch

ISBN: 0944383408

Author: Hilliard, George

Condition: new

...A Hundred Years of Horse Tracks tells the story of the long life of one of the most famous of the big outfits, the Diamond A, located mostly in Hidalgo and Grant Counties in the southwestern corner of New Mexico. From open range days in 1880, through the disasters of dry weather, overstocking, and low cattle prices, and on through the ups and downs of now nearly the entire twentieth century, Michael Gray's old ranch has survived the years as a very handsome piece of land. Rimmed by the Peloncillo and Guadalupe Mountains on the west, the Hatchet Mountains on the east, and by the Mexican Border to the south., the Diamond A - better known today simply as "Gray Ranch" - centers around the Animas Mountains of New Mexico's famous "Bootheel." Recently, the Nature Conservancy purchased the Ranch, then sold it to the Animas Foundation. The Animas Foundation operates the property today as a cattle ranch and as a magnificent natural area for biological studies.

Since few written records of the operations of the Diamond A have survived, George Hilliard has depended upon interviews for much of his information. He is to be thanked for preserving the best of the memories of many old-time men and women of the Bootheel and for collecting a gathering of cherished photographs. Himself a retired cattleman who knows these people instinctively, George is a listener to whom the cowpeople have talked freely about the ranching life as they might talk to a neighbor.

George's writing is like his talk. The phrasing and the lore of the range are the fiber of his prose. Having spent much of his working life managing ranches, he switches now in A Hundred Years of Horse Tracks to writing lively narrative remarkably well. Revealing the voice and the confidence of an old-time cattleman telling the story to a circle of his kind, he captures the character of range people and the nub of ranch life in the Bootheel as it was lived for well over one hundred years. It is a privilege to read his book, to be for an evening a member of the cowman's circle, and to hear first-hand the story of one of New Mexico's largest, oldest, and most forward-looking ranches.

David Remley
Silver City, New Mexico

• Used Book in Good Condition