Texas Myths and Legends: Stories of the Frontier - Softcover

The Texas frontier was a vast, unsettled area that beckoned to the daring, an area that offered a fresh start. Those who had suffered financial misfortune or had brushes with the law could come out West and begin anew, if they had sufficient courage. The stories offered in this volume concern the inhabitants of the Texas frontier during the last half of the nineteenth century into the early twentieth. The Texas frontier from the 1860s to the 1890s was roughly the area west of a line drawn from Fort Worth to San Antonio, During the 1860s and 1870s Comanche and Kiowa Indians still ruled much of the area, and only the strong and the brave ventured into the region. The weak died along the way, and the timid never left home. The frontier experience, of course, shaped the lives of the people who settled the area, and over the course of time some of the early inhabitants may have become unrecognizable, larger than life, entered into the realm of myth or legend. These stories cut through the romance and the fiction and help explain - simply, succinctly, objectively - some of the people who made Texas what it is today.

Vivid illustrations from a traveling public art project produced by the Center for Contemporary Arts in Abliene accompany the text. As an introduction to frontier Texas history, Texas Myths and Legends deserves a place in classrooms, libraries, and homes.

JOHN C. FERGUSON is the volunteer services coordinator at the San Jacinto Battleground and Battleship Texas State Historic Sites. His duties include training staff and volunteers in the art of historical interpretation, and presenting educational and historical programs to the public. John is the author of three books dealing with U.S. military and Texas history including Hellcats (State House Press, 2004