Remarkable cattle drives, famous ranches and legendary characters are at the heart of Ken Mather's account of the early days of ranching in British Columbia. These are stories about drovers, ranchers, cowboys and "mud pups" (the remittance men of the ranching industry). You'll meet such people as: the flamboyant Harper brothers, drovers who went on to become the biggest landowners in BC, with interests in the Harper, Perry, Hat Creek and famous Gang ranches Johnny Wilson, one of the most successful ranchers in the industry, who became known as the "BC Cattle King" Jim Madden, nicknamed "Big Kid" for his exuberant personality and childish innocence and whose simple lifestyle and colourful adventures made him famous in the Nicola and surrounding valleys Coutts Marjoribanks, a mud pup whose skills as a cowboy—and his exploits, such as riding his horse up the steep steps and into the Kalamalka Hotel bar—far outshone his talents as the ranch manager his rich family forced him to be. The story begins at the time of BC's first gold rush, and the start of a decade that would see more than 22,000 head of cattle brought into the colony. The author takes readers through to 1914, by which time ranching in the BC Interior had become big business. Complete with informative tidbits about the cowboy's tools of the trade, Buckaroos and Mud Pups is an entertaining look at fascinating times and the men who made them so.

Remarkable cattle drives, famous ranches and legendary characters are at the heart of Ken Mather's account of the early days of ranching in British Columbia. These are stories about drovers, ranchers, cowboys and "mud pups" (the remittance men of the ranching industry). You'll meet such people as: the flamboyant Harper brothers, drovers who went on to become the biggest landowners in BC, with interests in the Harper, Perry, Hat Creek and famous Gang ranches Johnny Wilson, one of the most successful ranchers in the industry, who became known as the "BC Cattle King" Jim Madden, nicknamed "Big Kid" for his exuberant personality and childish innocence and whose simple lifestyle and colourful adventures made him famous in the Nicola and surrounding valleys Coutts Marjoribanks, a mud pup whose skills as a cowboy—and his exploits, such as riding his horse up the steep steps and into the Kalamalka Hotel bar—far outshone his talents as the ranch manager his rich family forced him to be. The story begins at the time of BC's first gold rush, and the start of a decade that would see more than 22,000 head of cattle brought into the colony. The author takes readers through to 1914, by which time ranching in the BC Interior had become big business. Complete with informative tidbits about the cowboy's tools of the trade, Buckaroos and Mud Pups is an entertaining look at fascinating times and the men who made them so.

Published for devotees of the cowboy and the West, American Cowboy covers all aspects of the Western lifestyle, delivering the best in entertainment, personalities, travel, rodeo action, human interest, art, poetry, fashion, food, horsemanship, history, and every other facet of Western culture. With stunning photography and you-are-there reportage, American Cowboy immerses readers in the cowboy life and the magic that is the great American West.

Despite being neighbouring provinces with long ranching histories, British Columbia and Alberta saw their ranching techniques develop quite differently. As most ranching styles were based on one of the two dominant styles in use south of the border, BC ranchers tended to adopt the California style whereas Alberta took its lead from Texas. But the different practices actually go back much further. Cattle cultures in southwestern Spain, sub-Saharan Africa and the British highlands all shaped the basis of North American ranching. Digging deep into the origins of cowboy culture, Ken Mather tells the stories of men and women on the ranching frontiers of British Columbia and Alberta and reveals little-known details that help us understand the beginnings of ranching in these two provinces.

Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops tells the story of ranching in the West from the beginning of the Great War until 1960. Cowboy soldiers, bronc busters, First Nations, upper-crust Englishmen and the strong, capable women of ranching country . . . theirs are the stories told in this book. Some of these characters are larger than life, such as: Joe Coutlee, cow boss of the Douglas Lake Ranch, whose booming voice gave him the nickname “Roaring Bill” Grover Hance, who roped one of his men and tied him to a tree until he sobered up Florence “Bunch” Trudeau, whose pet moose got a little too big for comfort Ollie Matheson, one of the only women to ride in the Williams Lake Stampede’s death-defying Mountain Race Anne Paxton, who tended cattle, guided big-game hunters, ran pack horses and a ranch; Bill Arnold, who could ride “anything that wore hide.” Ken takes readers inside sprawling ranches, which were self-contained communities in themselves, and small family-run homesteads scratched out of the wilderness. Like his first book on ranching history, Buckaroos and Mudpups, this is an engaging look at fascinating times and the people who made them so.

An entertaining, fast-paced look at early ranching in British Columbia. Frontier historian Ken Mather is known for his fascinating, in-depth profiles of the men and women who established a distinctive ranching culture in Western Canada over a hundred years ago. Now, in this concise collection of stories—based on Mather’s column in the Vernon Morning Star—readers will meet even more colourful characters, gain insightful tidbits on cowboy culture, and read about little-known cattle drives that stagger the imagination. Ranch Tales highlights the achievements, hardships, and exploits of Newman “King of the Range” Squires, “lady rancher” Elizabeth Greenbow, cow boss Joe Coutlee, the gold-seeking Jeffries brothers who came all the way from Alabama, and many more. This delightful book is a perfect companion to Mather’s other ranching histories and will appeal to anyone interested in the early days of the western frontier.

Like John Muir, David Pitt-Brooke stepped out for a walk one morning—a long walk of a thousand kilometres or more through the arid valleys of southern interior British Columbia. He went in search of beauty and lost grace in a landscape that has seen decades of development and upheaval. In Crossing Home Ground he reports back, providing a day-by-day account of his journey’s experiences, from the practical challenges—dealing with blisters, rain and dehydration—to sublime moments of discovery and reconnection with the natural world. Through the course of this journey, Pitt-Brooke’s encounters with the natural world generate starting points for reflections on larger issues: the delicate interconnections of a healthy landscape and, most especially, the increasingly fragile bond between human beings and their home-places. There is no escaping the impact of human beings on the natural world, not even in the most remote countryside, but he finds hope and consolation in surviving pockets of loveliness, the kindness of strangers and the transformative process of the walking itself, a personal pilgrimage across home ground. Crossing Home Ground is a book that, though rooted in one specific place and time, will evoke a universal sense of recognition in a wide variety of readers. It will appeal to hikers, natural-history enthusiasts and anyone who loves the wild countryside and is concerned about the disappearance of Canada’s natural spaces. Pitt-Brooke’s grassland odyssey is sure to become a classic of British Columbia nature writing.