A Book Report by Nancy Ohnick
copyright Nancy Ohnick
Lost Trails of the
Cimarron
By Harry E. Chrisman
Harry Chrisman spent most of his career as a reporter
for the Southwest Daily Times in Liberal, Kan. He had a passion for
the history of what has been termed the “Cimarron Country,” a region
that includes southwestern Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and the
neutral strip of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. Chrisman left
several books as his legacy, of which “Lost Trails of the Cimarron”
is considered one of his best efforts. The book was written in 1961,
and is still in print today.
Chrisman’s style of research involved extensive
visits with “old timers,” getting his stories first hand from the
people who lived them. I can certainly forgive the occasional
inaccuracy in his facts in appreciation for the colorful way they
are presented. He doesn’t use tedious footnotes, rather gives his
sources in the back of the book by page number… a style that let’s
the reader further explore if he wants to, but doesn’t clutter the
page and interrupt the reader’s train of thought.
In his introduction Chrisman writes: “The nature of
pioneer life along the Cimarron, whether that of the buffalo hunters
or of the cattlemen in the 1870s and 1880s, was not one to produce
writers or artists with the time and talent to document their deeds
with words and with pictures. As a consequence, the broken and
twisted trails left by them are now almost entirely wiped from the
face of the earth, their stories forgotten. With the hope that a
book of anecdotes, reminiscences and folk stories might again help
to reveal these lost trails of the Cimarron, this book was compiled
and written.”
Through the pages of this book you will become
familiar with the buffalo hunters who were the first white men to
come to Cimarron Country in the 1870s. You will ride range with the
cowboys and learn the plight of the women on the frontier. You will
learn of the trails, why they were forged and how they were used.
You will learn of the outlaws and ruffians of "No Man’s Land" and
the trail drives to Dodge City and beyond… and all the while you
will be caught up in the story… not wanting to put it down.
One of my favorite parts of this book is a map
placing the different cattle outfits by brand where they occupied
open range. In the back of the volume is a listing of brands from
the 1885 Brand Book of the Western Kansas Cattle Growers
Association, listing the name of the owner, the foreman, and an
illustration of the brand. With these two tools you can, at a
glance, determine where the old ranches were located.
Any reader interested in the wild, wild west will get
a good glimpse of it through the pages of this book. Any reader with
roots in this region will have a new appreciation for the people who
settled here… as Chrisman recreates the men and women whose lives
are the true “Lost Trails of the Cimarron.”
Title: “Lost Trails
of the Cimarron”
Second Edition
Author: Harry E.
Chrisman
ISBN:
0-8061-3017-2
Published by
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman
This book may be
purchased on-line at
www.prairiebooks.com.
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