Tularosa: Last of the Frontier West

C. L. Sonnichsen

Tularosa--sun-scorched, sandblasted, merciless--the parched desert where everything, from cactus to cowman, carries a weapon of some sort, and the only creatures who sleep with both eyes closed are dead. Tularosa--the last frontier in the continental United States. C. L. Sonnichsen, an authority on the Southwest, writing from primary records and conversations with survivors of Tularosa's pioneer days, tells the stories of the great cattle ranchers pitted against daring rustlers, elite men against Apaches, desperados against law men. Here are Oliver Lee, Pat Garrett, and Bill McNew. And here is the feud between Col. A. J. Fountain and Albert Fall. Sonnichsen has updated his history for this new edition with a revised final chapter bringing the drama of Tularosa and the New Mexican frontier West into the Atomic Age.

"Remarkable human dramas . . . are related with a remarkable combination of the regional historian's craft and the story-teller's art." --San Francisco Chronicle

"This book is accurate, crisply written, as clear and astringent as the desert air." --The New York Times

"This is fascinating reading in which the standard stuff of feuding in the old west . . . achieves an extraordinary fidelity and freshness." --Chicago Sunday Tribune

"Tularosa's story is one of brave men as tough as the harsh land they settled, . . . [a] classic history." --American West

C. L. Sonnichsen, 1901â??1991, was the author of numerous books and a longtime professor of English at the University of Texas, El Paso.

5.5 x 8 348 pages 18 halftones, 1 map