West Texas Tales

Historian Mike Cox has been writing about Texas history for four decades, sharing tales that have been overlooked or forgotten through the years. Travel to El Paso during the "Big Blow" of 1895, brave the frontier with Elizabeth Russell Baker, and stare down the infamous killer known as Old Three Toe. From frontier stories and ghost towns to famous folks and accounts of everyday life, this collection of West Texas Tales has it all.

Central Texas is an area as diverse culturally as it is geographically. Bordered by Hill Country in the west, green farmland in the east and Waco and New Braunfels in the north and south, this area has drawn settlers from around the globe for over two centuries, leaving their mark and their stories along the way. From a surprising story of nineteenth-century psych ops at Fort Mason and what really happened to Bevo, the UT longhorn, in 1920 to Mrs. Ross's Croghan Cobbler recipe and rumors of a Lone Star visit by old Abe himself, historian Mike Cox regales readers with over fifty stories about the fascinating people, history and places of middle Texas.

"What I looked for in putting together this collection were stories that stand the test of time, that offer a glimpse into the history and culture of this huge part of the state that we call West Texas, and that can be told in a few pages. Some of the tales are amusing, some are nostalgic, some historical, some dramatic, some personal. I present them here in pretty much chronological order, beginning with several stories from the West Texas frontier, continuing through the first half of the twentieth century, and on to more modern days"--

These tales trace the Texas story, from Cabeza de Vaca who trekked barefoot across the country recording the first accounts of Indian life, to impresarios like Stephen F. Austin and Don Martín DeLeón who brought settlers into Mexican Texas. There are visionaries like Padre José Nicolás Ballí, the Singer family, and Sam Robertson, who tried and failed to develop Padre Island into the wonderland that it is today. There are legendary characters like Sally Skull who had five husbands and may have killed some of them, and Josiah Wilbarger who was scalped and lived another ten years to tell about it. Also included are the stories of Shanghai Pierce, cattleman extraordinaire, who had no qualms about rounding up other folks’ calves, and Tol Barret who drilled Texas’ first oil well over thirty years before Spindletop changed the world. The Sanctified Sisters got rich running a commune for women, and millionaire oilman Edgar B. Davis gave away his money as fast as he made it. Sam Houston, Jean Lafitte, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Lucy Kidd-Key, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, all these characters and many more—early-day adventurers, Civil War heroes, and latter-day artists and musicians—created the patchwork called Texas.

These tales trace the Texas story, from Cabeza de Vaca who trekked barefoot across the country recording the first accounts of Indian life, to impresarios like Stephen F. Austin and Don Martín DeLeón who brought settlers into Mexican Texas. There are visionaries like Padre José Nicolás Ballí, the Singer family, and Sam Robertson, who tried and failed to develop Padre Island into the wonderland that it is today. There are legendary characters like Sally Skull who had five husbands and may have killed some of them, and Josiah Wilbarger who was scalped and lived another ten years to tell about it. Also included are the stories of Shanghai Pierce, cattleman extraordinaire, who had no qualms about rounding up other folks’ calves, and Tol Barret who drilled Texas’ first oil well over thirty years before Spindletop changed the world. The Sanctified Sisters got rich running a commune for women, and millionaire oilman Edgar B. Davis gave away his money as fast as he made it. Sam Houston, Jean Lafitte, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Lucy Kidd-Key, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, all these characters and many more—early-day adventurers, Civil War heroes, and latter-day artists and musicians—created the patchwork called Texas.

You have a great writing style, very credible, and entertaining. Those were dangerous times. Almost all of the guys are gone. A great book!... -Doyle Brunson, Poker Hall of Fame, author. He's as good a writer as he is a player. When it comes to poker tales...Johnny Hughes is your man.... -Anthony Holden, London, President of the International Federation of Poker, author ... a captivating raconteur and avid historian...brings them to life with a unique flair and panache...(He) paints word pictures with witty, lush brush strokes reminiscent of Tom Wolfe... -Paul "Dr. Pauly" McGuire, author ..the William Manchester of poker historians...a Hughes narrative is like lighting a lantern into the darkest recess of poker's subculture...provides the very best portrait of these unique real-life characters of anyone on record... -Nolan Dalla, Media Director. World Series of Poker, author. ...the true story...of the beginnings of the phenomenon that poker has become... -Crandell Addington, Poker Hall of Fame. Reading...is only paralleled by listening to him tell those stories in real time...like putting yourself in the same room as it all unfolded...when the mob ruled Las Vegas...the real stories... -Ryan Sayer, OnTilt Radio, C.O.O., and Host. www.JohnnyHughes.com

This collection of hilariously true tales was gathered by a West Texas rancher/outfitter. He combines side-splitting punch lines with ample history and inside information on ranching and hunting. You'll learn how to work with bird dogs, deal with rattlesnakes, rattle-up bucks and host turkey hunters. You will meet cow traders, an egg thief, a victim of rabies and a survivor of 7000 volts of electricity. Each chapter in the book details events which led to the author's transition from ranching to outfitting when he began hosting deer and turkey hunters from all across the nation in the mid-1980s. Unforgettable characters appear in every chapter. Illegal aliens, feedlot managers, camp cooks, and even a mortician plus scads of others play supporting roles in the narrative. Heart-rending tales of a wounded pet deer, a gifted bird dog, and a captured wild donkey are only some of the animal stories told in the book. Inhabitants of the ranch country survive their endemic hardships with, among other things, outrageous humor and clever pranks. Such shenanigans, we learn, are similarly common to outdoorsmen nationwide. Both ranch people and hunters produce belly-laughs a-plenty in these pages. Although abundant humor dominates, there is an insightful historical overview of the changes that have come to West Texas over the past few decades together with a prediction of what the future holds for deer hunting.