Description
Book Synopsis“I can’t imagine a better guide to the Old West and the contemporary Wild West than Ian Neligh. This book is a hoot.” —C.J. Box, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author of LONG RANGE
A collection of true stories revealing the spellbinding world of the Old West’s greatest and most infamous characters past and present, including bullfighters, treasure seekers, bounty hunters, detectives, gunslingers, rustlers, even the legendary showman Buffalo Bill Cody, and many more.
Just how wild was the "Wild West"—and what’s left of it? A time of legend, adventure, and unspeakable tragedy, America’s Western frontier in the latter half of the nineteenth century helped forge the United States into the country it would become and left an enduring legacy for its people. By the author of Gold! Madness, Murder, and Mayhem in the Colorado Rockies, Spurred West reveals the unusual history behind Colorado’s birth and the cultural formation of the Wild West of the Rocky Mountains.
Written with historical accuracy and research in a compelling, gripping voice, this book examines Colorado’s state heritage while telling colorful stories of historic and modern-day figures, from the bondsmen and gunslingers of old to the buffalo wranglers today. Discover the incredible stories of America’s Wild West and the lasting spirit it has emboldened to carry in Colorado still to this day.
Includes stories based in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming and of interest to anyone who loves the West.
Trade Review"Ian Neligh recounts the story of the Colorado gold rush, bringing it forward to contemporary times, melding the old and the new. He tells about the men who still moil for gold in the Colorado Rockies." (GOLD!) * Sandra Dallas, Denver Post *
"Written in compelling journalistic style, each chapter is devoted to a different fascinating gold hunter, alternating between the Wild West of the 1800s and the colorful characters who make up today's Colorado prospecting community. . . Neligh excels in interviews with the people practicing this work today. . . getting into the minds and hearts of these Coloradans." (GOLD!) * Colorado Life magazine *
“I can’t imagine a better guide to the Old West and the contemporary Wild West than Ian Neligh. This book is a hoot.” *
C.J. Box, #1 New York Times Best Selling Author of LONG RANGE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter One: Forging the Wild West
Chapter Two: The Bullfighter
Chapter Three: Shootists of the Old (and New) West
Chapter Four: The March Powwow
Chapter Five: Cattle, Blood, and Thunder
Chapter Six: The Man Hunter
Chapter Seven: The Tale of Two Bounty Hunters
Chapter Eight: Weather, the “Irresistible Violence”
Chapter Nine: The U.S. Marshals and Frontier Justice
Chapter Ten: The Greatest Lawman of the West
Chapter Eleven: The Last Gunfight
Chapter Twelve: Guns of the West
Chapter Thirteen: Call of the Wolves
Chapter Fourteen: Bare-Knuckle Boxing
Chapter Fifteen: Reenacting the West
Chapter Sixteen: The Treasure Hunters
Chapter Seventeen: Buffalo Bill’s Body
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
