I just finished reading Black Range Tales, by James A. McKenna, which I enjoyed very much, about the old mining days of the southwestern United States, particularly southeastern Arizona and southern New Mexico, where the Black Mountain Range is located.

The first printing of the book was published by Wilson-Erickson (New York) in 1936, just four years before McKenna’s passing. The current edition is published by High-Lonesome Books, Silver City, New Mexico (2014) and includes a historical introduction by M.H. Salmon, providing a researched backdrop to set the documentary in its proper historical and literary perspective.

The book is not a fictional work, per se, but is more a collection of memoirs of an old miner, whose tales are sometimes told from the “last liar wins” perspective.  It produced chuckle after chuckle from me as I read McKenna’s tales.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of McKenna’s stories, he effectively captures the overall historical backdrop against which all these stories are told, giving the reader a true mental picture and feeling for what the life of a miner in the old west was like and the trials and tribulations those true pioneers endured. The stoic, practical, and even humorous manner in which they faced them, are clearly manifest in McKenna’s relation of the “facts” as he remembered them.

Below is a short excerpt from the book, one I particularly enjoyed from a story entitled “Danny’s Trouble with the Devil”:

“…Here comes Danny on a dead run. There must be something wrong in the tunnel.”
“What’s up now?” I wondered.
As he rushed up, excited and out of breath, he yelled, “I got him sure this time, and there ain’t been a muff out of him since I struck him!”
“Who?”
“Who else but the devil himself,” said Danny, pale and trembling.
“Tell us what happened,  said Canfield.
“Well,” he began, “I was pounding away on the drill, sitting down to it, as the hole was not high on the face of the tunnel, when I heard the mine car coming. Of course I thought it was Jimmie, though I did wonder why he was pushing it in at that hour. I kept on drilling till the car ran plunk into me. ‘Jimmie,’ I screams, jumping up, and there staring at me out of the dark, his eyes burning like two coals and his horns straight up, was his majesty himself. I cracked him a good one right between the eyes with my four-pound striking hammer and down he went like a thousand pounds of rock. Over the car I went, and you know the rest.”
“Well, Danny, come along, but I can tell you beforehand you’re going to have to pay for Kinzie’s white steer, ” said I.
(End excerpt)

McKenna fills the pages with story after story, citing names, places, dates, and even topography, all of which add beautifully to the color and credibility of each one. Sufficient detail is provided to allow one to locate many of the sites referred to in the stories. The stories are handily compiled into several chapters, each chapter containing several stories and each with a title to give the reader a hint at the topical content.  The book comprises 300 pages.

I truly enjoyed the read, particularly since I have spent some time on my horse exploring some of the areas he refers to.

Maybe you will enjoy it too.

Click on the image and you will link to the book on Amazon.com.