Patrick Dearen – författare

Rising at 11,750 feet in the Sangre de Cristo range and snaking 926 miles through New Mexico and Texas to the Rio Grande, the Pecos River is one of the most storied waterways in the American West. It is also one of the most troubled. In 1942, the National Resources Planning Board observed that the Pecos River basin ""probably presents a greater aggregation of problems associated with land and water use than any other irrigated basin in the Western U.S."" In the twenty-first century, the river's problems have only multiplied. Bitter Waters, the first book-length study of the entire Pecos, traces the river's environmental history from the arrival of the first Europeans in the sixteenth century to today.Running clear at its source and turning salty in its middle reach, the Pecos River has served as both a magnet of veneration and an object of scorn. Patrick Dearen, who has written about the Pecos since the 1980s, draws on more than 150 interviews and a wealth of primary sources to trace the river's natural evolution and man's interaction with it. Irrigation projects, dams, invasive saltcedar, forest proliferation, fires, floods, flow decline, usage conflicts, water quality deterioration - Dearen offers a thorough and clearly written account of what each factor has meant to the river and its prospects. As fine-grained in detail as it is sweeping in breadth, the picture Bitter Waters presents is sobering but not without hope, as it also extends to potential solutions to the Pecos River's problems and the current efforts to undo decades of damage.Combining the research skills of an accomplished historian, the investigative techniques of a veteran journalist, and the engaging style of an award-winning novelist, this powerful and accessible work of environmental history may well mark a turning point in the Pecos's fortunes.

Rising at 11,750 feet in the Sangre de Cristo range and snaking 926 miles through New Mexico and Texas to the Rio Grande, the Pecos River is one of the most storied waterways in the American West. It is also one of the most troubled. In 1942, the National Resources Planning Board observed that the Pecos River basin “probably presents a greater aggregation of problems associated with land and water use than any other irrigated basin in the Western U.S.” In the twenty-first century, the river’s problems have only multiplied. Bitter Waters, the first book-length study of the entire Pecos, traces the river’s environmental history from the arrival of the first Europeans in the sixteenth century to today.Running clear at its source and turning salty in its middle reach, the Pecos River has served as both a magnet of veneration and an object of scorn. Patrick Dearen, who has written about the Pecos since the 1980s, draws on more than 150 interviews and a wealth of primary sources to trace the river’s natural evolution and man’s interaction with it. Irrigation projects, dams, invasive saltcedar, forest proliferation, fires, floods, flow decline, usage conflicts, water quality deterioration—Dearen offers a thorough and clearly written account of what each factor has meant to the river and its prospects. As fine-grained in detail as it is sweeping in breadth, the picture Bitter Waters presents is sobering but not without hope, as it also extends to potential solutions to the Pecos River’s problems and the current efforts to undo decades of damage.Combining the research skills of an accomplished historian, the investigative techniques of a veteran journalist, and the engaging style of an award-winning novelist, this powerful and accessible work of environmental history may well mark a turning point in the Pecos’s fortunes.

The Pecos River flows snake-like out of New Mexico and across West Texas before striking the Rio Grande. In frontier Texas, the Pecos was more moat than river—a deadly barrier of quicksand, treacherous currents, and impossibly steep banks. Only at its crossings, with legendary names such as Horsehead and Pontoon, could travelers hope to gain passage. Even if the river proved obliging, Indian raiders and outlaws often did not.Long after irrigation and dams rendered the river a polluted trickle, Patrick Dearen went seeking out the crossings and the stories behind them. In Crossing Rio Pecos—a follow-up to his Castle Gap and the Pecos Frontier—he draws upon years of research to relate the history and folklore of all the crossings—Horsehead, Pontoon, Pope’s, Emigrant, Salt, Spanish Dam, Adobe, “S,” and Lancaster. Meticulously documented, Crossing Rio Pecos emerges as the definitive study of these gateways which were so vital to the opening of the western frontier.

First published in 1988, Castle Gap and the Pecos Frontier was acclaimed by reviewers as “superb,” “significant,” and “utterly delightful.” In this revised edition, Patrick Dearen draws upon the latest in scholarship to update his study of the Pecos River country of West Texas. It’s a land wild with tales that blend history, geography, and folklore, and from his search emerge six fascinating accounts:Castle Gap, a break in a mesa twelve miles east of the Pecos River, used by Comanches, emigrants, stage drivers, and cattle drovers;Horsehead Crossing, the most infamous ford of the Old West;Juan Cordona Lake, a salt lake where sandstorms and skull-baking sun defied early efforts to mine salt vital to survival;The “bulto” or ghost who wanders the Fort Stockton night;Lost Wagon Train, a forty-wagon caravan buried in the sands;The lost mine of Will Sublett, who found gold and kept its location secret unto death.Although linked by the search for treasure, the stories are as varied as the land itself. They speak eloquently of the Pecos country, its heritage, and its people.

Tom Rowden has been riding away from the Pecos River for twenty years, plagued by the haunting image of his wife, Sarah, the second before he killed her. Now, he is dead-set on returning to her unmarked grave above the river to make one final atonement. His journey is interrupted when a group of Mexican bandits burn down the 7L’s ranch house, kill the ranch boss, and rape and abduct his daughter, Liz Anne. The 7L’s greenhorn wagon boss, Jess Graham, desperately begs for Tom’s help in rescuing Liz Anne, the girl Jess loves. Tom obliges and sets out with Jess and his posse of ranch hands through a hellish desert landscape toward the Pecos River. For Jess, it is his first journey through the desert; Tom hopes it is his last.The journey slowly wears down the group of cowboys, who must face deadly foes, choking dust clouds, and rabid wolf attacks. To stay alive, they also must fight against personal desires and a growing sense of hopelessness, but the most deadly enemy remains the scorching desert, threatening to erase life at any second.Liz Anne, meanwhile, must also fight on through the desert, holding on to what dignity she has left, trying to slow down her captors long enough for her rescue party to catch up. Her captors reach the pools hidden in a canyon just a few miles away from the Pecos River and set an ambush for the rescuers. Will the posse be killed by the ambush? Will Jess ever get back his precious Liz Anne? Will Tom be able to make it the last few miles to the Pecos River and find absolution? Discover all the answers in Patrick Dearen’s exciting new tale, To Hell or the Pecos.

Will Brite is a Slash Five cowboy working in the Middle Concho region of Texas in the winter of 1884 when a blizzard descends upon him—the likes of which he has never seen. Trapped under his horse and entangled in a barbed wire fence, Will finds an unexpected (and unwelcome) savior in the form of Zeke Boles, a former slave on the run from a bloody, guilt-filled past.In Zeke’s dark features Will sees a reflection of the haunting memories he has been trying to escape for so long, but he reluctantly offers him shelter for the night at the Slash Five camp. Little does he know that their lives will be inexorably linked in the spring of ’85 through what will be one of the most brutal roundups of the nineteenth century.Follow Will, Zeke, and the rest of the Slash Fives as they ride through West Texas in search of stray cattle in an unforgettable tale of love, redemption, and true grit.

A man either chases his dreams, or he dies. Present-day ranch hand Charlie Lyles longs for an era before mechanization, when a cowboy’s greatest ally was his horse. He remembers stories of cattle drives and stampedes and shallow graves in lonesome country. Society has pushed Charlie toward a conformity that he hates, but he is about to change the rules. At a remote line shack in West Texas, he steals a horse, leaving a perfectly good pickup behind. His theft leads to a manhunt with a helicopter and assault weapons, but his trackers are headed into territory that hasn’t changed in a century . . . and they are trailing a man born a hundred years too late. A Spur Award finalist, When Cowboys Die has been acclaimed as “spellbinding” and “an instant classic.” This new volume, the first print edition in twenty-five years, includes a preface and “Requiem for a Cowboy,” a documented account of the 1976 Texas manhunt that inspired the novel.

In this standalone sequel to The Big Drift—winner of five awards including the Spur Award of Western Writers of America—Patrick Dearen explores race relations against the backdrop of the Big Dry, a devastating drought in the 1880s in Texas. Zeke Boles, a black cowhand, awaits hanging in North Texas for a murder he didn’t commit. His white friend Will Brite, with whom he rode in the Big Drift blizzard, has exhausted virtually all avenues to get Zeke exonerated. Will’s only hope is to set out for the faraway Devils River to find the actual culprit, a man with a missing finger.But Will has his own legal issues. He has married Jessie, a young woman of mixed race who often passes for white, and a grand jury is sure to return an indictment of miscegenation that could land Will in prison. Follow the exploits of Will and his friend Arch Brannon as they join a cattle drive through a searing land between the Devils and Pecos rivers. This hellish trail is destined to be marked with carcasses and a lonely grave, and the elusive possibility of finding hope at the end.

It's Halloween in 1860, wolves are howling, and bats are flying across the face of the moon. Eleven-year-old Bird and his twin brother are on a Butterfield stage headed across the Red River into Texas. Even though their father is the driver, the next several miles will be scary. Night has fallen, and the dark woods may be full of spooks, ghost bells, glowing tombstones, headless horsemen, wandering spirits, and forked-tail terrors.When the brothers meet up with Zeb, an enslaved boy, they face the woods' chilling possibilities as they set out for buried treasure that could buy Zeb his freedom. Even if they find it, who would drive the stagecoach if no one else is able? What would happen if the stage escaped the woods, only to get caught in a buffalo stampede? And what would the boys do if they learn that the treasure was stolen from hardworking folks?Even as the three boys forge a friendship, Bird grapples with a central question: Why can't he and Zeb just be boys around one other? Instead, adults require Zeb to call him Massa Bird, an example of the deference an enslaved person is expected to pay even a fellow youngster.A closing chapter tells the history and folklore (personally collected by the author) behind the story and suggests books for further reading.

Every time a cowhand dug his boot into the stirrup, he knew that this ride could carry him to trail's end. In real stories told by genuine cowboys, this book captures the everyday perils of the "flinty hoofs and devil horns of an outlaw steer, the crush of a half-ton of fury in the guise of a saddle horse, the snap of a rope pulled taut enough to sever digits. Threats took many forms, all of them sudden, most inescapable—a whooshing arrow or exploding slug, a raging river ready to drag him to the depths, and lightning that rattled bones and deafened if it missed, or came with silent finality if it didn't." Whether destined to be remembered or forgotten, a cowhand clung to life with all the zeal with which he approached his trade. He was the most loyal of employees, repeatedly putting his neck on the line for a mere dollar a day. Patrick Dearen has brought these reckless and risky adventures to life with colorful stories from interviews with 76 men who cowboyed in the West before 1932 as well as 150 archival interviews and written accounts from as early as the 1870s and well into the mid-twentieth century.

It's 1867 and eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin are headed across Texas on a wagon train. But the trail is full of danger. A Comanche war party is on the prowl, looking for horses and scalps. Among the Indians is eleven year old Hunting Bear, who is riding his first war trail. Before the journey is over, he must prove himself worthy to be a warrior.Fish has been taught to hate Comanches. Hunting Bear has been taught to hate white men. But all of that changes when the two boys come face to face and become friends.Suddenly the lives of their peoples rest on the boys' shoulders. The Comanches have sworn to attack the wagon train. The white men have vowed to fight back and track down the warriors. Soon there will be bloodshed, and only Fish and Hunting Bear have a chance to stop it. But will they find a way?

Eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings has always wanted to be a cowboy. Now, in the spring of 1868, he has his chance. His uncle is driving a cattle herd across Texas, and Fish is going with him as far as Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. Little does Fish know that he is saddling up for the wildest rides of his life.With his cousin Gid, Fish is about to face mean broncs, angry longhorns, and a dozen cowboys ready to play pranks. The days ahead will be filled with sandstorms and stampedes, lightning and twisters. It's the roughest stretch of cattle trail in Texas, and it will either make a cowhand out of a boy or break him.

The Big Bend of Texas is a mysterious place in 1869. Legend has it that there's a lost gold mine in the Chisos Mountains. Twelve-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid have heard all about it. But when they discover a dying Indian in the desert, they have reason to believe it.Suddenly the boys find themselves with a great secret. No one else knows the way to the last Chisos mines-but do they dare? To find it, they must cross a desert prowled by Apache warriors. They must ride a trail haunted by devil animals and Indian spooks. Even with the help of a young Apache boy, the journey won't be easy.And what will they do if they succeed?

Working cowboys live on as genuine legends who rode through a golden moment in American history. In the 1980s historian/ author Patrick Dearen went looking for the last of these fading icons. The trail took him to dozens of one-time cowhands in their 80s, 90s, and even 100s whose aged eyes lit up and voices seemed young again as they spoke of their experiences on the trail. From these honest-to-goodness cowhands he collected priceless, spellbinding true stories of the incredible hardships of braving the elements, dealing with stampedes and runaways, and good-natured hoorawing with their companions. These stories bear the unmistakable brand of an Old West that is now but a dusty grave on a long-lost trail. Dearen chronicles the tales and introduces the cowboys who tell them, with tender respect and love.

The Big Bend of Texas is a mysterious place in 1869. Legend has it that there's a lost gold mine in the Chisos Mountains. Twelve-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid have heard all about it. But when they discover a dying Indian in the desert, they have reason to believe it. Suddenly the boys find themselves with a great secret. No one else knows the way to the last Chisos mines-but do they dare? To find it, they must cross a desert prowled by Apache warriors. They must ride a trail haunted by devil animals and Indian spooks. Even with the help of a young Apache boy, the journey won't be easy. And what will they do if they succeed?