The Pecos River country of West Texas is a vast land of contrasts, stretching between San Angelo on the east and El Paso on the west. Rich in history and folklore, this region has shaped the lives of those who live there. Patrick Dearen spent years tracking down its stories, and then painting word portraits of some of its intriguing individuals, forgotten sites, and legends. He trekked across the Guadalupe Mountains in a fresh search for the Lost Sublett Mine. Another lost mine, the Chisos, lured him deep into Big Bend National Park. He canoed the mythic Pecos River in quest of the origin of its name, and dared the spirits in a haunted house in the Davis Mountains. The mysterious Marfa Lights teased him across an arid plain on a dark night. In Palo Duro Canyon, he rounded up Texas’s oldest cowhand and shared his line camp. He rode the Rio Grande with the Border Patrol, hopped a freight train with hoboes, and walked the scene of a manhunt for a cowboy born a hundred years too late. Expanded and updated, this book will leave you bonded to the land, its heritage, and its people. “Using the drama and color of a gifted storyteller —a contemporary J. Frank Dobie—Patrick Dearen in these pages lets us sample the many flavors of his Pecos frontier.” —Elmer Kelton in the foreword