Ride On! Book Recommendations for Westerns

Books on the Wild West are very popular, all you have to do is go to the library and look under the Western section. But to find books on the Wild West that are good, wholesome and full of adventure? That's a little harder.  

No worries, that's why Marin and I read books for you, to recommend the best ones we know about! So grab your hats, buckaroos, as we're about to head down the trail of literature! 

The Circle C Adventures 

Andrea Carter and The 

Long Ride Home 

Dangerous Decision  

Family Secret 

San Francisco Smugglers 

Trouble with Treasure 

Price of Truth 

By Susan Marlow 

Welcome to the Circle C Ranch, home of Andrea Carter, her family, and beloved horse. Living on the Circle C ranch in 1880s California--the heyday of the Old West--provides Andi with more than her fair share of adventures. Whether nearly trampling her schoolmaster with her palomino horse, Taffy, or outwitting an escaped convict, Andi's life is never boring. Her hair-raising escapades always end up teaching her valuable lessons about family, faith, and friends. Even if she does cause a lot of trouble (not on purpose, it just happens!) and even if she does get ornery with her brothers, Andi's family love and care for her shows that, no matter what happens between siblings, family is the greatest adventure God's ever given us. 

What we like about this series: Fun, fast paced and laced with adventure, this series always keeps you on the edge of your seat. They're never boring, something exciting happens in every book throughout the series. These are the kinds of books that kids love- good values, great adventure and plenty of humor. 

Age Range: 9-14, but older teens will enjoy them too 

Audience: Boys and Girls 

Cautions: Some characters (bad guys) do get shot in different books, and Andi gets injured in a couple of them. Little kids may be scared by this. 

Era: 1880s 

Special Notes: This is probably the best kid's book series Marin and I have ever read. Marin loves them, she never grows tired of the interactions between the siblings. To really appreciate them you have to read them! 

 NO PHOTO AVAILABLE

Danger in Sagebrush Country 

By Dorothy Croman 

This exciting story, which includes snakes, robbers, and wild cows, is set in Washington Territory in the summer of 1884, as a young girl's adventures teach her about trusting God and loving others. From escaping a mob in Spokane to facing a grasshopper invasion (that really makes it hard to breath without sucking in bugs!), you'll find adventure at every turn and lifelong lessons on every path. 

What we like about this book: The characters of this story (this is bad, we can't actually remember the names and no one else we know remembers either. Take our word for it, though, it's a good book!) share many a laugh, fright and excitement throughout the novel. Their love of animals is sure to make the animal people happy, especially when they make pets out of skunks! 

Age Range: 9-15 

Audience: Boys and Girls 

Cautions: The banker is murdered, and there is a couple of scary rattlesnake scenes. Little kids may be a little frightened by the 'bad guys' and the wild animals. 

Era: 1884 

Special Notes: This is my personal favorite stand-alone novel about the West. It's witty, fun, fast paced and very family oriented. The suspense gets really good in some parts also, and it focuses on a not-so-common area to do a Western- Washington, of all places! 

High Meadow Series 

 *The Hope of Wind River 

By Connie Siebert with Sandy Maxwell 

Maxine Mayfield is young and beautiful and suddenly finds herself alone for the first time in her life. Now she is faced with the challenge of finding her only living relative--her brother. But when a stranger crosses her path, she is compelled to take on the added responsibility of another person as she starts her search. After all, how much trouble can a little, white-haired girl be? Yeah, right! 

"The Hope of Wind River" takes you on a journey from the southeast corner of the Colorado Territory to the Wind River area of what was known in 1859 as the Dakota Territory. Be prepared to laugh a little, cry a little, and cheer a lot as cowboys, soldiers, Indians, and trail-bosses dance across the pages of this wild western adventure. 

What we like about this series: The main character, Maxi, is very endearing to the readers. Angel, her friend, is so sweet and gentle that she's sure to get more than one "awww," out of you! There are several hilarious scenes, from cowboys to Indians to adventures on the trail. Never a dull moment throughout the novel, it's fun from beginning to end! 

Age Range: 15 and up 

Audience: Girls, but Boys would like it also 

Cautions: This book is definitely for older readers. There are some suggestions made by the bad guys, but nothing ever comes from it. Also, the girls talk like, well, girls. They admire the different cowboys they meet and discuss which ones they'd like to marry. There is romance intertwined throughout the book, but it's good and wholesome. There is No swearing, immorality from the main characters or things like that, but the reader should be at least fifteen should they read this novel.  

Era: 1859 

Special Notes: None 

*This is the only one we've read. Book Two hasn’t come out yet 

Come back next week and we'll bring you on an exciting adventure, meeting a friend that we know you'll love!

Saddle Up Partner! The Old West

What people usually think when they hear Wild West.

We all know, hear and love the old West. Cowboys, horses, cattle, gunfights, outlaws. You name it and they had it. The West was full of legends and stories, dreams and fears. The East Coast could never get enough of the wildness of it all, the "romance" of "way out there." 

Yet the old West was so much more than that. Sure, they had all the things you watch on Rawhide and Bonanza, (though not nearly so dramatized.) but there was a lot of things that happened first that lead to the famous time period in history that we now call the Wild West. 

Let's began with a brush-up on who explored the West. Yep. Lewis and Clark, the famous explorers from the year 1804. When America bought the Louisiana Purchase ( parts of Montana, N. Dakota, Wyoming, S. Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and of course, Louisiana) they hired Captain Merriweather Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. But did you know that before them Captain James Cook had sailed the Pacific Ocean before? He sure did! We came along once, and... okay, getting ahead of myself. 

The migration West took place over several years, and more often than not was more of a trickle. Fur traders, mostly Russians, did wander up and down the Pacific Coast and traipse along the mainland, but for the most part the land west of Colorado was owned by the Spanish and Mexicans. It was known as the Spanish Territory. Later, the Spanish Territory would eventually be fought over and the Americans would come to settle it, but we're not going to get into that right now. Y'know, remember the Alamo. That's for another time. 

One major event that brought settlers to the West was the Oregon Trail. The first migrant organized wagon train started in Independence, Missouri, and headed down the trail to Fort Hall, Idaho. Many more followed. Trails were perilous, dangerous and ridden with disease and sickness. Many settlers never made it to the West, but died along the way. Their grave-markers can still be found today.  

Fast-forward again to the California Gold Rush. You remember what we covered? Hordes of people began to race West with Gold Fever, itching to get rich quick. This took place in the 1840s. Like we'd discussed a couple months back, though a lot of those people didn't become rich, they settled the Northwest and other Western states to become homesteaders and ranchers.  

A cattle drive to Oklahoma.

In other parts of the country, places like Texas, Arizona and other hot states were great places to raise cattle. Lots of land, sunshine and food. As early as 1836 ranchers in Texas began to drive their cattle along a "Beef trail" to New Orleans. By the 1840s that trail expanded towards Missouri and included towns like Sedalia, Bazter Springs, Springfield and St. Louis. The main trail was Shawnee Trail (also known as the Texas Road or Texas Trail), until 1853, when the farmers got afraid that the cattle were carrying the Texas Fever (caused by ticks) and blocked the trail. The Texas cattle were immune to it, but the local cattle were not and the farmers began to seize and kill any infected cattle they came across. Drovers than began to take their herds up the eastern edge of Kansas, but there they were also met with opposition.  

The West was a huge expanse of land to be covered, full of exotic creatures settlers from the East that had never seen such things as buffalo, marmots and other creatures native to the drier climates of the Western states. Tales were spun and sent back to the relatives left behind in the old settlements, and these were no doubt the wild stories of outlaws and Indians we hear today. Some of it was true, but a good amount of it could be disposed of as a "yarn", or a tall tale to rouse the curiosity of those who lived too far away to see the real deal itself. 

Now about cowboys. 

This was a little excerpt we read online that Wikipedia wrote up. 

The English word cowboy has an origin from several earlier terms that referred to both age and to cattle or cattle-tending work. 

The word "cowboy" appeared in the English language by 1725.[3] It appears to be a direct English translation of vaquero, a Spanish word for an individual who managed cattle while mounted on horseback. It was derived from vaca, meaning "cow,"[4] which came from the Latinword vacca. Another English word for a cowboy, buckaroo, is an Anglicization of vaquero.[5] 

Originally, the term may have been intended literally—"a boy who tends cows." By 1849 it had developed its modern sense as an adult cattle handler of the American West. Variations on the word "cowboy" appeared later. "Cowhand" appeared in 1852, and "cowpoke" in 1881, originally restricted to the individuals who prodded cattle with long poles to load them onto railroad cars for shipping.[6] Names for a cowboy in American English include buckaroo, cowpoke, cowhand, and cowpuncher.[7] "Cowboy" is a term common throughout the west and particularly in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, "Buckaroo" is used primarily in the Great Basin and California, and "cowpuncher" mostly in Texas and surrounding states.[8] 

So there you have it. The origin of the word "Cowboy".  

Cowboys from the West.

The most famous time that most people remember when they think of the Wild West is the years between 1870s-1880s. These were the years that infamous outlaws like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Cherokee Bill, Bonnie and Clyde, The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. Everyone who heard their names knew to fear them, and wild tales of their many crimes were spread from territory to territory. Those days were also the years of the most

famous cowboys and cowgirls of the time, with names such as Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Buffaloo Bill, Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickok gracing the pages of history. To this day you can type up any one of these names and you'll find numerous books and movies on any one of these people. Their legends live on to this day. 

To be honest, there is so much that one cannot even begin to tell about the West and the stories of those who experienced it first hand. If you were to mention anything about the "West" to your fellow Americans, the first picture they'd get in their mind was of outlaws stealing money from a bank, shooting at lawmen and then taking off on their horses. Though that did happen, most of the time life "out there in the Wild West" was more a day-to-day survival experience than a rough and tumble shootout.  

The old West will always be remembered as one of the great moments in American history. Ask any foreigner what the greatest events in America's life before the World Wars and they'd probably say, "The Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the old West."  

Perhaps the reason the American settlement of the Western States is so fondly remembered with such great romanticized stories is because deep down, we'd all like to live in a time where an honest man could get what he deserved by working hard, loving his family and loving God. Good always triumphed over evil, and Christian values prevailed over all. I think we'd all like to live in a time like that. 

Today in History: On this day in history, Flour was in high demand in San Francisco, California. Not very interesting, right? Well, the Los Angeles Herald wrote that: The demand is fair and the prices are firm. Wheat- Demand good and holders Arm, shipping is $1, milling is $1. Wish we could buy wheat flour for that price these days!

Little-known Fact: Did you know that Camels used to live in California? We're not kidding! On May 14th, 1856, the camels arrived in America as part of a United States military experiment. They were going to use the camels to ride across deserts like Death Valley, but discovered that camels aren't exactly the nicest of creatures ever. Plus, their horses were terrified of them, which didn't help much at all. The project was abandoned and the camels died out, but you can now safely tell someone that camels used to live in California!

Come back next week and we'll give you some great reads to satisfy that wild side of yours for old West adventures!