On the southern portion of what was known as the Sibley’s Pezuna del Caballo (Horse’s Hoof) Ranch in West Texas’ Culberson County are two mountains that nearly meet, forming a gap that frames a salt flat where Indians and later, pioneers came to gather salt to preserve foodstuffs. According to the US Geological Survey, the gap that provides this breathtaking and historic view is named “Jane’s Window.”In Jane’s Window: My Spirited Life in West Texas and Austin, Jane Dunn Si...

An inside look at the renowned "Big Wall" era of Yosemite climbing, when legendary pioneers such as Yvon Chouinard, Royal Robbins, Steve Roper, Warren Harding, and more, achieved what others had only dreamed of. Glen Denny was there, along side his compatriots, lugging his camera to places never before captured on film.The sheer granite walls of Yosemite Valley galvanized a dedicated group of rock climbers in the 1960s, who saw the nearly holdless, glacier-polished...

The true story of how George, the eleventh child born to Swiss immigrants in the mountains of Colorado grew up, experiencing the rugged life of hunting and fishing for food and the enjoying the care and nurturing of a large and loving family. He was tthe only one graduating from the eighth grade in Marble, Colorado and finished high school in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He gained great experience working in a variety of jobs before being drafted into the US Army. He spent two years in the ...

In 1950, Ann was eighteen and Bob D twenty when he asked her to marry him and hit the road for West Texas. They packed their station wagon, left home and began a life of adventure together on Conoco's West Texas survey crew during the 1950s oil boom. Five kids, twenty-one towns and thirteen years on the road--Bob D and Ann's travels along the highways of West Texas are a portrait in a landscape of oilfields, railroads and ranches. Layering local history with family memoir, author Rebecca D...

The Panhandle�s first railroad, the Southern Kansas Railway of Texas, was constructed in 1886. Reaching Amarillo in 1889, the railway pulled cars filled with immigrant families and their belongings. The settlers were farmers from the east and south who came west to find water and cheap land. George Tyng, an adventurous fortune seeker, began leasing ranch land in 1887. A rail station was constructed, and Tyng eventually settled on the name �Pampa,� a South American word that means �plains.�...

Texas was built on stories of cactus, cattle, and cowboys that have stretched as big as the state itself to encompass the even more fabulous tales of railroads, oil, and the bravest of settlers. Railroads brought commerce, people, and vitality to early Texas creating such strong growth and welcoming numerous industries that now the state’s economy is broad based and globally reknowned. Men like Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving pioneered ranching on the prairies and their kind was only t...

Vibrant and captivating Nevada City began as a gold-mining camp called Deer Creek Dry Diggins. The large gravel deposits alongside this creek reportedly delivered a pound of pay dirt a day by the fall of 1849, when A. B. Caldwell�s general store opened to supply this haphazard collection of tents. By March 1850, somewhere between 6,000 and 16,000 boisterous souls called it home, and the new town was christened �Nevada,� meaning �snow covered� in Spanish. After 1861, townsfolk took to addin...

Dreams of taking to the air, serving the war effort, and discovering a world beyond the small family farm where he was raised led Clete Ernster first to Texas, where he was the youngest flight instructor in the Army Air Corps and where he met his beautiful wife, Kathleen, and then to China, where he flew dangerous missions over The Hump. Returning to Texas with numerous decorations for service above and beyond, he began a dedicated mission to become the proverbial American success story. A...

Growing up in the shadow of Mount RushmoreLincoln Borglum was a young boy when his father, the great sculptor Gutzon Borglum, suggested to a group of South Dakota businessmen that he should carve the faces of four presidents into a side of a mountain as an attraction for tourists. But Mount Rushmore would never be finished by Gutzon. It would be his son who would complete the fourteen-year task and present America with one of its most iconic symbols.A Calif...

Elk Grove's roots go back to 1850, when the community consisted of only a stage-stop hotel. In 1876, this small farm town in the shadow of Sacramento became a crossroads along the new railroad tracks. As the railroad era progressed, it brought significant changes to Elk Grove'fields were transformed into orchards, vineyards, and eventually, residential developments. But Elk Grove remained just a part of southern Sacramento County until citizens prevailed in their attempt to establish cityh...

Located midway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, the Palo Verde Valley enjoys year-round sunshine and mild winter temperatures. In the late 1800s, surveyor O. P. Callaway recognized the valley�s potential for flood irrigation from the Colorado River. He enlisted Thomas Blythe of San Francisco to finance the irrigation project. During the early 1900s, as more people settled in the valley, farming became the major industry as the extremes of a great river and a great desert merged into a flou...

�Hot Springs, New Mexico, Ain�t That Any More� was one of the headlines on April 4, 1950, in the Gallup Independent. As a publicity stunt, Ralph Edwards had invited a town to change its name to �Truth or Consequences,� the name of his popular radio quiz show, and Hot Springs agreed to do so. Since the late 1800s, the area has attracted health seekers to bathe in and drink from the area�s hot mineral springs. The region is home to Elephant Butte Dam and lake, completed in 1916, which remain...