Black Range Tales

By James A. McKenna

The mostly true tales of McKenna's years prospecting and mining in the Black Range in southwestern New Mexico in the 1880s. Lots of adventure and encounters with critters and Apaches and it paints a pretty clear picture of the life of the average prospector.
Some snippets from the book:

Then Tom pulled off the blankets and showed his find. The dealer tested the gold, finding it almost pure, and when he hung the nugget on his scale it tipped them at well-nigh a hundred pounds. Tom walked out of that dealer's shop worth thousands of dollars. A cast of the nugget was made and sent to a Frisco bank. So far as I know it was the largest nugget ever found in the United States...

Many prospectors stopped here and were never seen again though their horses and mules could be traced to the spot. At times the owner would go to Independence to fill up with booze, trading watches and ornaments for whiskey and other things that he wanted. After the Governor's brother disappeared, the Governor sent detectives to find a trace of him if possible... Not not long after this a doctor rode the stage to the new mining camp, stopping for lunch at Hayway Meadows. The pickled meat was put on the table, and the doctor thought the bones were not from an animal but from a human. Hiding some away, when he got to Independence, he made some tests and found they were human bones, sure enough. The sheriff and a posse going to The Meadows arrested the keeper. Searching the station they found many articles belonging to the Governor's brother and many belonging to lost prospectors. They got a confession, he showing them the graves of eight missing men, also testifying there was a gang from Arizona to California murdering nearly all single travelers who stopped at their stations...

My the cutthroats and thieves! They seemed to come here from all parts of the world. One of them named Kennedy is said to have murdered twenty-five men. At the new town called Elizabeth Town crime became so bad that Vigilantes were formed, and Kennedy was one of the first to be hung. The six-shooter was the only law. The stages were held up almost every day by such outlaws at Henderson, Coal-Oil Johnny, Joe McCurdy and Stewart. The county officials offered three thousand dollars reward for anyone caught robbing the stage.

A fascinating book of tales recounting McKenna & friends experiences, a look back at life in the Wild West, very interesting reading.