Download or read book Three Roads to Chihuahua written by Roy L. Swift and published by . This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great wagon roads that opened the southwest, 1823 to 1883

Download or read book Three Roads to Chihuahua written by Roy L. Swift and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of three trade routes between the United States and Mexico, in use during the mid 1800s

Download or read book The US Army and the Texas Frontier Economy written by Thomas T. Smith and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventy million dollars in fifty-five years. From Texas' annexation in 1845 until the turn of the twentieth century, the U.S. Army pumped at least that much or more into the economy of the fledgling state, a fact that directly challenges the popular heritage of Texas as the state with roots of pioneer capitalism and fervent independence. In The U.S. Army and the Texas Frontier Economy, 1845-1900, Thomas T. Smith sheds light on just who bankrolled the evolution of Texas into viable statehood. Smith draws on extensive research gathered from both government archives and Texas army posts in order to evaluate the symbiotic relationship between army quartermasters and the economy of the young state. Texas was the army's largest--and most costly--engagement, absorbing up to thirty percent of the total operating budget and channeling that currency into the commercial development of its frontier. Smith expands on historian Robert Wooster's theory that the military was engaged in an alliance with the political authority in Texas, and using documents such as army contracts for freighting, foraging, and fort leasing, he illustrates how federal fiscal activity spurred commercial growth for the citizens of Texas. Besides the obvious development of towns on the skirts of military bases and of roads between them, the establishment of military spending as a bedrock of the Texas economy and the protector of middle class interests shaped the future of the state's commercial prosperity. Writing with exceptional detail and clarity, Smith traces the emergence of the army's influence and includes analyses of information on army spending and development such as the introduction of army weather and telegraph services to the state, as well as accounts of real estate transactions involving the fort building program. Smith also accounts for army failures, maintaining that no one was truly prepared for the reality of western expansion. As an examination of the complex yet mutually beneficial economic relationship between the nation and the state, The U.S. Army and the Texas Frontier Economy, 1845-1900 is ideal for anyone interested in the early days of the state as well as in U.S. military and frontier history.

Download or read book Camino del Norte written by Howard J. Erlichman and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-17 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some five hundred miles of superhighway run between the Rio Grande and the Red River—present-day Interstate 35. This towering achievement of modern transportation engineering links a string of Texas metropolises and some 7.7 million people, and yet it all evolved from a series of humble little trails. The I-35 Corridor that runs north-south through Texas connects Dallas and Fort Worth with Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo en route to ancient towns in Mexico. Along its path lie urban centers, technology parks, parking lots, strip malls, apartment complexes, and vast open spaces. In this fascinating popular history, based on extensive primary and secondary research, Howard J. Erlichman asks how and why the Camino del Norte (the Northern Road) developed as (and where) it did. He uncovers, dissects, prioritizes, and repackages layer upon layer of centuries-spanning history to, in his words, "solve the mystery of I-35." His chronicle focuses less on the physical placement of I-35 than on the reasons it was created: the founding of posts and villages and the early development of towns. Along the way, he explores a number of circumstances that contributed to the location and development of the corridor: pre-Columbian cultures, Mexican silver mining, road and bridge building techniques, Indian tribes, railroad developments, military affairs, car culture, and pavement technology, to name a few. Presently, a variety of new highway projects are underway to address the dramatic expansion of I-35 traffic generated by population growth and business enterprise. Those interested in the economic development of the state of Texas, in NAFTA links and their precursors, and in touring the Interstate itself will find this book informative and useful.

Download or read book The Carriage Journal written by Jill Ryder and published by Carriage Assoc. of America. This book was released on 1992-09-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: View from the Box 54 1992 CAA Restoration Competition Results 55 A Step in Time 57 Memories-Mostly Horsy 59 On Spring Curvature 61 Coach Horn Tunes 63 Driving Around the World 64 Trans-Mississippi Transport: Part V 66 George Abbott 70 The Tantivy Road Coach 71 Driving Double Harness 7 4 The Scottish Open Carriage Driving Trials 76 Everybody Loves a Parade 79 The Life of Spider Phaeton 81 In Memorium Charles W. Kellogg 82 Museum News 83 Questions and Answers 84 Book Reviews 85 The Carriage Trade

Download or read book The River Has Never Divided Us written by Jefferson Morgenthaler and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, William P. Clements Prize, Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America, 2004 Not quite the United States and not quite Mexico, La Junta de los Rios straddles the border between Texas and Chihuahua, occupying the basin formed by the conjunction of the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the Chihuahuan Desert, ranking in age and dignity with the Anasazi pueblos of New Mexico. In the first comprehensive history of the region, Jefferson Morgenthaler traces the history of La Junta de los Rios from the formation of the Mexico-Texas border in the mid-19th century to the 1997 ambush shooting of teenage goatherd Esquiel Hernandez by U.S. Marines performing drug interdiction in El Polvo, Texas. "Though it is scores of miles from a major highway, I found natives, soldiers, rebels, bandidos, heroes, scoundrels, drug lords, scalp hunters, medal winners, and mystics," writes Morgenthaler. "I found love, tragedy, struggle, and stories that have never been told." In telling the turbulent history of this remote valley oasis, he examines the consequences of a national border running through a community older than the invisible line that divides it.

Download or read book The Texas Rangers written by Mike Cox and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-03-18 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the history of the Texas Rangers from their origin in 1821 to protect the settlers from the Karankawa Indians, and describes how they became one of the fiercest law enforcement groups in America.

Download or read book From Presidio to the Pecos River written by Orville B. Shelburne, Jr. and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1848 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War described a boundary between the two countries that was to be ascertained by a joint boundary commission effort. The section of the boundary along the Rio Grande from Presidio to the mouth of the Pecos River was arguably the most challenging, and it was surveyed by two American parties, one led by civilian surveyor M. T. W. Chandler in 1852, and the second led by Lieutenant Nathaniel Michler in 1853. Our understanding of these two surveys across the greater Big Bend has long been limited to the official reports and maps housed in the National Archives and never widely published. The discovery by Orville B. Shelburne of the journal kept by Dr. Charles C. Parry, surgeon-botanist-geologist for the 1852 party, has dramatically enriched the story by giving us a firsthand view of the Chandler boundary survey as it unfolded. Parry’s journal forms the basis of From Presidio to the Pecos River, which documents the day-to-day working of the survey teams. The story Shelburne tells is one of scientific exploration under duress—surveyors stranded in towering canyons overnight without food or shelter; piloting inflatable rubber boats down wild rivers; rising to the challenges of a profoundly remote area, including the possibility of Indian attack. Shelburne’s comparison of the original boundary maps with their modern counterparts reveals the limitations of terrain and equipment on the survey teams. Shelburne's book provides a window on the adventure, near disaster, and true accomplishment of the surveyors’ work in documenting the course of the Rio Grande across the Big Bend region.

Download or read book Big Bend Country written by Kenneth Baxter Ragsdale and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having first visited the Big Bend in 1928, Kenneth B. Ragsdale has been digging around in and writing about the region for decades. In Big Bend Country: Land of the Unexpected, he takes a nostalgic retrospective journey through the times and places of this increasingly popular corner of West Texas to say goodbye to those who made the history, created the myths, and lived the legends.?Building his stories around themes of compassion, conflict, and compromise, he profiles both famous and relatively unknown figures. He tells stories of curanderas (healers), charity workers, a woman who practiced medicine without a license, and another who started a private lending library in her store to encourage rural, poor children to read. In contrast to these stories, he chronicles blood feuds, shootouts, and the violence bred in wild, relatively lawless spaces.?Ragsdale?s stories cover a half-century, roughtly 1900 to 1955, from wagon trains to the filming of an epic movie, a time in which the face of the Big Bend changed: the quicksilver mines closed, a national park was established, isolation and cattle gave way to vacation ranchettes and tourists. ?Big Bend Country is a well-done and useful work and should be welcomed by all lovers of that wonderful country.? ?Dallas Morning News ?If you?ve never been to Big Bend, Ken Ragsdale?s new book will make you want to go there.??Austin American-Statesman.

Download or read book A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers and Militia written by Jerry D. Thompson and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 896 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil War in New Mexico began in 1861 with the Confederate invasion and occupation of the Mesilla Valley. At the same time, small villages and towns in New Mexico Territory faced raids from Navajos and Apaches. In response the commander of the Department of New Mexico Colonel Edward Canby and Governor Henry Connelly recruited what became the First and Second New Mexico Volunteer Infantry. In this book leading Civil War historian Jerry Thompson tells their story for the first time, along with the history of a third regiment of Mounted Infantry and several companies in a fourth regiment. Thompson’s focus is on the Confederate invasion of 1861–1862 and its effects, especially the bloody Battle of Valverde. The emphasis is on how the volunteer companies were raised; who led them; how they were organized, armed, and equipped; what they endured off the battlefield; how they adapted to military life; and their interactions with New Mexico citizens and various hostile Indian groups, including raiding by deserters and outlaws. Thompson draws on service records and numerous other archival sources that few earlier scholars have seen. His thorough accounting will be a gold mine for historians and genealogists, especially the appendix, which lists the names of all volunteers and militia men.

Download or read book New Mexico Territory During the Civil War written by Jerry D. Thompson and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 1862 the Civil War was going badly for the North. The distant New Mexico Territory, however, presented a different situation. After an invading army of zealous Texas Confederates won the field at Valverde near Fort Craig, Colorado Volunteers fell on the Rebels at Glorieta Pass and crushed Confederate dreams of conquering New Mexico and the Far West. The Texans, hungry and disheartened, retreated, leaving uncertainty and social unrest in their wake.By the late summer of 1862, Gen. James Henry Carleton arrived from California, determined to impose federal control on the territory. Major Henry Davies Wallen and Captain Andrew Wallace Evans were appointed inspector general and assistant inspector general, respectively. Fearing a second Confederate invasion, Carleton had Wallen and Evans examine various routes the Rebels might use to invade the territory as well as a variety of logistical and operational issues. Tellingly, their reports repeatedly mention troop drunkenness and poor relations with the locals as primary problems. These inspection reports, edited by award-winning Civil War historl War years.ian Thompson, provide unique insight into the military, cultural, and social life of a territory struggling to maintain law and order.

Download or read book Tejano West Texas written by Arnoldo De León and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring a side of Tejano history too often neglected, author Arnoldo De León shows that people of Spanish-Mexican descent were not passive players in or, worse, absent from West Texas history but instead were active agents at the center of it. The collection of essays in Tejano West Texas—many never before published—will correct decades of historiographical oversight by emphasizing the centrality of the Mexican American experience in the history of the region. De León, a true dean of Tejano history, showcases the continued presence and contribution of Mexican Americans to West Texas. This collection begins in the 1770s when settlers of Mexican descent first began migrating to Presidio and then to other sections of the Big Bend. De León then turns his attention to the nineteenth century when Mexican immigrants and other Texans searched for work throughout the West Texas hinterland, and his coverage continues onward through the twentieth century. Mexican American and Texas history scholars will find Tejano West Texas to be an invaluable addition to the Tejano narrative.

Download or read book Sam Maverick s Trail written by Daniel McNeel Lane, MD, PhD and published by Sunstone Press. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the Mexican Congress ratified the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) was the legal boundary between Texas and Mexico. Under the treaty, the United States was obligated to prevent raids by “hostile tribes” in Mexico whose northern frontier had been ravaged by the raids. This obligation was accepted despite the absence of a wagon road between San Antonio and El Paso or any U.S. Army forts with soldiers stationed along the border. In fact, no Americans, including Texans who claimed the lands, knew where the border or tribal crossings were located. This is the story of the 1848 Hays Expedition, the first U.S. effort to search for a wagon road route along the new border to Chihuahua and El Paso. The original intent was to establish a trade route to Chihuahua but the Expedition’s efforts to explore the new lands proved to be far more difficult. Besides crossing the most rugged terrain in Texas with almost no water sources and starving from lack of food, the Expedition survived the first American exploration of the Texas-Mexico border and provided critical information that led to the settlement of far West Texas and a new route from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

Download or read book Borderlander written by Ralph Adam Smith and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Since the 1920s, American historians have presented Kirker only in the worst of terms. Smith, however, demonstrates that Kirker's white contemporaries judged him a hero. At a time when evolving politics led to new methods of warfare - when desperate people resorted to desperate measures - his deeds earned him a reputation for bravery and good citizenship."--BOOK JACKET. "Whether Kirker is judged a villain or a hero, or merely a scoundrel, his colorful life reflected the turbulence of his times."--Jacket.

Download or read book Devils River written by Patrick Dearen and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his newest book, Devils River, Patrick Dearen traces the 400-year history of the notorious river from the time of the first Spanish explorers to the modernization of southwestern Texas and the coming of the railroad. He vividly retells stories of Indian encounters, train robberies, and other horrific events that prove just how the name “Devils River” was coined. With his inimitable style, the author weaves together a variety of themes--military events, including the Civil War and stories about the Texas Rangers; the development of the first mail lines; and the introduction of cattle and sheep raising--into a comprehensive account of the violence and bloodshed surrounding the Devils River. The nature of the river’s history is such that very few anecdotes have happy endings, but Devils River contains stories of triumphs as well as disasters. Although this is an excellent account for historians studying the west, it is also very accessible to others with little or no background in early western history.

Download or read book War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier 1830 1880 written by Miguel Ángel González-Quiroga and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historical record of the Rio Grande valley through much of the nineteenth century reveals well-documented violence fueled by racial hatred, national rivalries, lack of governmental authority, competition for resources, and an international border that offered refuge to lawless men. Less noted is the region’s other everyday reality, one based on coexistence and cooperation among Mexicans, Anglo-Americans, and the Native Americans, African Americans, and Europeans who also inhabited the borderlands. War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier, 1830–1880 is a history of these parallel worlds focusing on a border that gave rise not only to violent conflict but also cooperation and economic and social advancement. Meeting here are the Anglo-Americans who came to the border region to trade, spread Christianity, and settle; Mexicans seeking opportunity in el norte; Native Americans who raided American and Mexican settlements alike for plunder and captives; and Europeans who crisscrossed the borderlands seeking new futures in a fluid frontier space. Historian Miguel Ángel González-Quiroga draws on national archives, letters, consular records, periodicals, and a host of other sources to give voice to borderlanders’ perspectives as he weaves their many, varied stories into one sweeping narrative. The tale he tells is one of economic connections and territorial disputes, of refugees and bounty hunters, speculation and stakeholding, smuggling and theft and other activities in which economic considerations often carried more weight than racial prejudice. Spanning the Anglo settlement of Texas in the 1830s, the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas , the US-Mexican War, various Indian wars, the US Civil War, the French intervention into Mexico, and the final subjugation of borderlands Indians by the combined forces of the US and Mexican armies, this is a magisterial work that forever alters, complicates, and enriches borderlands history. Published in association with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas

Download or read book A Dose of Frontier Soldiering written by E. A. Bode and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1999-08-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emil Adolph Bode, a German immigrant down on his luck, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1877 and served for five years. More literate than most of his fellow soldiers, Bode described western flora and fauna, commenting on the American Indians he encountered as well as the slaughter of the buffalo, the hard and lonely life of the cowboy, and towns and settlements he passed through. His observations, seasoned with wry wit and sympathy, offer a truer picture of the frontier military experience than all the dashing cavalry charges and thundering artillery in Western literature.