Longhorns, Silver and Liquid Gold / BookBaby (ePub)

This documented account of pioneering in Texas and New Mexico during their formative years focuses on one family, but parallels the lives of many who migrated to the untamed Southwest at this time in our history. The Irvin's story spans more than a century, divided between their adventures in west-central Texas, and the southwestern and northwestern corners of New Mexico. From the 1840's to the 1950's, four generations of Irvins tried their hand at cattle ranching, silver mining, land speculation, and drilling for oil. Through good times and bad, they persevered, just one family of many that helped settle these two great states. Their story unfolds while investigating family trees, civil records, letters, photographs and old newspapers. Gaps and numerous inconsistencies were discovered. Finding answers required personal visits to small, sometimes deserted. Brief accounts of the geography and the history of those times and places are included, providing essential context. The first generation of Irvins left their farm and began rounding up and raising longhorn cattle amidst Comanche raids and the Civil War. The next generation was lured briefly to southwestern New Mexico by the rich silver strikes of the 1870's. Here their lives were threatened by Apache raids and a complicated encounter with a notorious gang of cattle rustlers. The third generation resumed cattle ranching in west Texas but were defeated by floods, drought, fences, and the economics of scale. Finally, the Irvins migrated to the small town of Farmington in northwestern New Mexico, where water was plentiful and commerce was beginning to boom. Here they continued to ranch, but they also tried their luck drilling for oil, a choice that proved costly and sometimes tragic. The life the Irvins chose when they abandoned their farms in the Southeast and set sail for the still turbulent Southwest was not an easy life. It was primitive, dangerous and unpredictable. But, in hindsight, it was grand!