Cow Dust and Saddle Leather

The life of Ben E. Kemp — Texas Ranger, broncobuster, cowman and lawman — told by his son Benny, who was himself a U.S. forest ranger and sheriff of Catron County.

Context: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968, with J.C. Dykes. Ben W. (Benny) Kemp was born in 1890. Figures include Captain George W. Baylor, the Apache Kid and Black Jack Ketchum.

Why it’s on the list: A Catron County sheriff’s own family account — the closest thing on the list to an independent check on the ranching-era material H.B. Birmingham supplied.

Where I saw it: Named in Part 2 of Debbie Lee’s four-part Catron County Centennial History, posted publicly by the Catron County Historical Society in April 2022. It is part of the Catron County reading list assembled for the Luna novel research — the county Kyle’s family town sits in.

Connections

• Ranches of Catron County — the outfits and the range-war era
• the private Catron County research page — Benny Kemp’s working life overlaps the notebook list almost exactly