Early in the twentieth century, the black community in Tulsa- the Greenwood District- became a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center. Frequently referred to as The Black Wall Street of America, the Greenwood District attracted pioneers from all over America who sought new opportunities and fresh challenges. Legal segregation forced blacks to do business among themselves. The Greenwood district prospered as dollars circulated within the black community. But fear and jealousy swelled in the greater Tulsa community. The alleged assault of a white woman by a black man triggered unprecedented civil unrest. The worst riot in American history, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 destroyed people, property, hopes, and dreams. Hundreds of people died or were injured. Property damage ran into the millions. The Greenwood District burned to the ground. Ever courageous, the Greenwood District pioneers rebuilt and better than ever. By 1942, some 242 businesses called the Greenwood district home. Having experienced decline in the '60s, '70s, and early '80s, the area is now poised for yet another renaissance. Black Wall Street speaks to the triumph of the human spirit.

Searching for a better life, Mina, Papa, and Mama left their German fatherland aboard the brig Margaretha, bound for Texas. They had been told it was the paradise of North America, but when Mina steps onto the desolate beach at Indian Point on a cold December day in 1845, she wants to go back to Germany and Opa's cozy house in the village of Wehrestedt. But go on they must. In spite of mama's tragic death, Mina and Papa push inland with the Kaufmann family to the Texas Hill Country. There Mina encounters an Indian chief and his young daughter, Amaya, whose help she needs when Papa falls ill. Based on her ancestors' immigration to Texas, Janice Shefelman tells of a journey into the wilderness that is filled with hardship, tragedy and adventure.

The story of Bonnie and Clyde--their love, their desperate killings, and their destruction in an explosion of gun fire--has fueled an American legend more than seventy years. But it is only with this book by the last surviving officer of the six who shot Bonnie and Clyde that the full story of their capture has been told.

Ted Hinton's description of a secret, illegal police trap--hidden at the time from the press and public--is one of many revelations he draws from his intimate knowledge of the greatest manhunt of the 1930s. As a Dallas lawman he spent seventeen months, night and day, on the trail of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. He knew the notorious criminals personally from the seamy, hoodlum-ridden Dallas neighborhoods where they all grew up. He shared their code of toughness and genu­inely admired the extraordinary courage, skill, and loyalty that made Bonnie and Clyde stand out almost as heroes in the public imagination. Hinton admired them, but he never doubted that they had to be stopped. The long trail could only end in a shootout and their deaths-or his.

Hinton's experiences as a green young sheriff's deputy and his compassion for outlaw lovers give Ambush an unusual dimension of humanity. Twenty-seven photographs underscore the book's vivid au­thenticity. And the author's meticulous research, using sources avail­able to no one else, makes this the definitive work of fact. The result is a powerful human drama of crime and the law: the real story of Bonnie and Clyde.

A gripping account of rampant crime in Fort Worth, Texas, during the 1930s, through the 1950s, with hoodlums, gamblers, murderers, dopers, pimps, and lawmen on the take. The author recounts the days when Fort Worth was as wide open as Las Vegas with gambling and crime that rivaled New York and Chicago with mob hits, exploding cars, and late-night police raids. The personalities were larger than life, some went on to fame in other parts of the country such as Las Vegas gambling pioneer Benny Binion. While others met an early demise such as Herbert The Cat Noble.

Jacksboro Highway resembled The Strip in Las Vegas with casinos and night clubs that served as the epicenter for illegal activity, and the money and the blood flowed, while the law turned a blind eye to the mayhem. Ann Arnold gives a detailed account of almost two dozen gangland slayings and spills the beans, naming names of those indicted, complete with the final report of a special grand jury that ended the era.

Although only a cook, Doris Miller fought bravely against Japanese attackers at Pearl Harbor. The young African-American from Texas was one of the first sailors to earn the Navy Cross during World War II, and the first African-American. He became a hero to the country and a proud icon for the African-American community and the war effort in general. Despite his notoriety and accolades, Miller returned to combat and was killed in action. This is the story of his heroic life from one of the top non-fiction writers in the West. From his boyhood in Waco, Texas, to his death in the Pacific, Bill O'Neal tells the tale of a World War II hero.

A stray cat showed up at the Alamo in 1981 and had to be coaxed out of a tree by one of the Alamo Rangers who was on night guard duty. The cat became a fixture at the historic site and was given the name Ruby LeGato. She would hang out in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library during the day and go on night patrol with the rangers. She eventually became a celebrity at Texas' most historic site and when she gave birth to kittens in 1982, a TV news camera crew showed up to report on the blissful event. Ruby zealously guarded the grounds of the Alamo fending off other stray cats, raccoons, dogs or any other varmint that strayed onto her turf. Unfortunately Ruby drowned in 1986 on the Alamo grounds. Special permission by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas was given for Ruby to be buried in a beautiful garden spot on the Alamo grounds; a wooden marker was placed there and has since been replaced by a bronze plaque. Ruby is now immortalized in Rita Kerr's book, The Alamo Cat.

For a fan, few things match the pleasure of entering a college football stadium on a Saturday afternoon. The significance of these buildings to their respective institutions can hardly be overestimated, especially their intangible way of drawing together students, alumni, and entire communities. In Home Field: An Illustrated History of 120 College Football Stadiums, Richard Pennington explores the development of America's pigskin palaces, weaving together names, dates, and anecdotes that are funny, poignant and/or outrageous.

The Arizona Rangers is the first documented history of the Rangers ever published, and fills a sizeable void in the annals of Arizona Territory. Bill O'Neal's enthusiasm for his subject and his respect for those remarkable men who wore the five-pointed star are apparent in every word of his thoroughly researched, well written manuscript. He has accurately portrayed the story of the Arizona Rangers against an authentic background of turn-of-the-century Arizona.

Early in the twentieth century, the black community in Tulsa- the Greenwood District- became a nationally renowned entrepreneurial center. Frequently referred to as The Black Wall Street of America, the Greenwood District attracted pioneers from all over America who sought new opportunities and fresh challenges. Legal segregation forced blacks to do business among themselves. The Greenwood district prospered as dollars circulated within the black community. But fear and jealousy swelled in the greater Tulsa community. The alleged assault of a white woman by a black man triggered unprecedented civil unrest. The worst riot in American history, the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 destroyed people, property, hopes, and dreams. Hundreds of people died or were injured. Property damage ran into the millions. The Greenwood District burned to the ground. Ever courageous, the Greenwood District pioneers rebuilt and better than ever. By 1942, some 242 businesses called the Greenwood district home. Having experienced decline in the '60s, '70s, and early '80s, the area is now poised for yet another renaissance. Black Wall Street speaks to the triumph of the human spirit.

Black Wall Street 100: An American City Grapples with its Historical Racial Trauma, endorsed by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission and the 400 Years of African American History Commission, furthers the educational mission of both bodies. The book offers updates on developments in Tulsa generally and in Tulsa's Greenwood District specifically since the publication of Hannibal B. Johnson's, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District.

Black Wall Street 100 is a window into what distinguishes the Tulsa of today from the Tulsa of a century ago. Before peering through that porthole, we must first reflect on Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District in all its splendor and squalor, from the prodigious entrepreneurial spirit that pervaded it to the carnage that characterized the 1921 massacre to the post-massacre rebound and rebuilding that raised the District to new heights to the mid-twentieth-century decline that proved to be a second near-fatal blow to the current recalibration and rebranding of a resurgent, but differently configured, community.

Tulsa's trajectory may be instructive for other communities similarly seeking to address their own histories of racial trauma. Conversely, Tulsa may benefit from learning more about the paths taken by other communities. Through sharing and synergy, we stand a better chance of doing the work necessary to spur healing and move farther toward the reconciliation of which we so often speak.

Hidden in the unforgiving earth of West Texas were clues: archaic clues etched upon buried rocks, stacked as artifacts upon other clues, or carved into rock walls. These centuries-old clues, placed to lead Spaniards back to their cache, eventually formed an intricate web that has lured treasure seekers and captured them in its mystery. But the question still remains: Has the Spider Rock treasure ever been found? Steve Wilson first began his research on the treasure in 1960. The story he unraveled is an incredible tale riddled with murder, mystery, and adventure. Wilson left no stone unturned in his quest for clues, weaving his story from numerous interviews with eyewitnesses, early newspaper accounts, letters, documents, extended reconnaissance of the actual sites, and finally the cryptic stone maps that had gradually been unearthed by the original seekers. The story involves several towns and counties in West Texas; including Rotan, Aspermont, Haskell, Fisher County, Stonewall County and one of the area's most prolific landmarks, the Double Mountains. On dogged treasure hunter was Dave Arnold, who appeared in 1902 with an intriguing sheepskin map. After months of searching, he unearthed the stone map called the Spider Rock, with its tantalizing spider web-like design, Roman and Arabic numerals, and cryptic symbols. Nearby he found silver epaulets, a Spanish sword, silver crucifix and copper plates bearing strange tracery. In 1905 he moved his search to a wilderness sixty miles southeast, and once again unearthed a beautifully carved stone map imprisoned in the roots of a huge oak. Still later, moving sixty miles west-northwest, he uncovered yet another stone map, bearing the same concentric circles and symbols that appeared on the first tow. Dave Arnold's bizarre quest unfolded over a decade, until he disappeared without a trace in 1914. The search was renewed a decade later by one of the original seekers. Then, in the 1930's, more clues were found, including crude smelter pits, small silver crosses and statuettes and nuggets of gold. The first two stone maps and many of the artifacts found near them were long believed destroyed in a 1909 fire at the Terrell Drug Store in Haskell, Texas. But the Terrell family had kept a secret for almost seventy years: that many of those ancient items survived. With them were map tracings, letters, and documents describing an extensive search. The third stone map turned up in Waco, where it had been used as a doorstop for more than half a century. The Spaniards buried something fantastic in the West Texas hinterlands, where they were mining precious metals. They marked those sites by an ingenious method of carving coded symbols, directions, degrees, and distances into stone. To this day, the stone maps remain undeciphered, the ancient puzzle unsolved, and the treasure unfound-so far as we know.

In 1962 Mary Carey, newly widowed, drove the Alcan Highway alone from Texas to Alaska, where she would make herself a new life. And her life there - whether she was teaching in an eight-pupil pilot school in Talkeetna, flying Mt. McKinley with bush pilot Don Sheldon, or homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness - was one of continuous pioneering.

A crackerjack photojournalist -- she obtained exclusive eyewitness coverage of the 1964 earthquake in Kodiak, Seward, and Valdez - Ms. Carey won five first prizes in an Alaskan Press Clubs contest in 1963. She did not re-enter the contest until 1974, at which time the lady walked off with three more first prizes. Previously, in 1955, she won the National True Story Award - a $5,000 prize.

Mary Carey was the owner and proprietor of Mary's McKinley View Lodge, which she built on her homestead in 1972. There she baked sixty-four pies each day, welcomed guests, gave lectures to tourists, and somehow found time for rock hunting and writing.

Mary died suddenly at the age of 91, on June 18, 2004, at her beloved Mary's McKinley View Lodge. She left a rich legacy and a loving family from a life well-lived.

Cowman Mayer Halff rode a long, busy trail that few men could have followed. It carried him from 1850s France to Texas and across 1,500 miles of wild western country waiting to be tamed. Throughout his life, he was at ease whether dining with a U.S. President at a plush metropolitan banquet or squatting across a campfire from a dirt-streaked cowboy in some forsaken cow camp. Immigrating as a fourteen-year-old, Halff began as a foot peddler. He quickly built the largest dry goods business in the Southwest and by 1861 was pursuing his passion-cattle ranching. He founded several of Texas' famous ranches: the JM Ranch on the Pecos River, the Quien Sabe in the Midland region, the Circle Dot in the Big Bend, the Mallet on the South Plains, and the Schreiner and Halff in South Texas. He eventually controlled almost a million acres. Patrick Dearen, a Spur Award finalist and author of nine other books, carefully weaves Halff's story against the backdrop of the Texas cattle industry. The droughts, the drives, the drifts, the die-ups-they all bolt through these pages like stampeding cattle across a stormy plain.

In the early 1890s Wyoming's northern rangeland was torn by the Johnson County War, a violent western collision that pitted cattle barons and powerful politicians against homesteaders and rustlers. The range war, riddled with lynchings, ambushes, and an invasion by Texas hired gunmen, culminated in a valiant last stand and siege involving hundreds of combatants. These explosive events have captivated novelists, filmmakers, and historians for more than a century, inspiring such classics as The Virginian and Shane. The Johnson County War is the first comprehensive historical account of the range war in nearly four decades. Western historian Bill O'Neal has reexamined familiar sources and explored new information, while visiting sites from Hole-in-the-Wall to the famous TA Ranch. Lavishly illustrated, The Johnson County War is a fresh account of a major frontier conflict.

A biography of Jim Bowie, the restless adventurer who made his reputation with a hunting knife, became a successful farmer, businessman, adventurer, and died in the siege of the Alamo. Jean Flynn gives younger readers an opportunity to learn about one of the most iconic heroes in Texas history.

Aransas: The Life of a Texas Coastal County is a wonderfully researched history of an exciting part of Texas. This is the story of a little place that has played a surprisingly large role in the history of Texas. From the early explorers, Cabeza de Vaca and LaSalle, this is where much of the early history of Texas was born. This book is in three parts and is comprehensive in telling the story of the people, the land and how they helped shaped the great state of Texas. This book takes the reader on a journey through time that spans 1,000 years that will give the reader a better appreciation of this part of Texas and the people who lived the stories.

Pink Higgins was a rugged Texan who lived a life of classic Western adventure. He was a cowboy, Indian fighter, trail driver, stock detective, rancher, and deadly shootist who killed more adversaries than did such noted gunfighters as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson. Pink battled Comanches and rustlers, and led a faction in the murderous Horrell-Higgins feud of Lampasas County (Texas). Yet he was a hard-working family man, devoted to his nine children. His son, Cullen Higgins, as a lawyer and judge, would become entangled in a series of bloody events involving a powerful cattle baron and the legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. In this, the first book-length biography of Pink Higgins, the author reveals never before published details about the violence that followed the Higgins family to West Texas.

The Alamo and its defenders, according to historian Stephen L. Hardin, transcended mere history; both entered the realm of myth. Indeed, the siege and battle of the Alamo serves today as a definition of American character. The date of March 6, 1836, is forever ensconced in the annals of history. But what happened in the twelve days leading up to the final battle of March 6? And did events transpire in the final battle as history has led us to believe? As Hardin stated in the foreword for this book, Myth has so shrouded every aspect of the Alamo story that it becomes hard to separate the factual from the fanciful. Understand and appreciate the myth. Understand and appreciate the historical reality. But, please, graze them in different pastures. Author Alan Huffines has researched both the history and the myth of the Alamo. What he found lacking in Alamo accounts was a perspective unaffected by either history or myth. In this book he portrays the events preliminary to and during the battle from the viewpoint of the participants. In a day-by-day chronology of the thirteen days, he presents original Texian and Mexican perspectives so that the reader may decide which may be accurate and which possibly embellished. His critical analysis of the participants' reports, through extensive annotation, points out inconsistencies and provides considerable food for thought. The renowned military artist Gary S. Zaboly fastidiously researched primary sources for accuracy in clothing, weapons, architecture, geography, and so on, resulting in maps and artwork that offer a new visual perspective of the Alamo and those who were involved with the siege. Through the author's research and the artist's fine illustrations, the thirteen days come into focus, and the people who experienced the sights, smells, sounds, and emotions of that two-week period are allowed to speak finally for themselves.

Once upon a time in the late nineteenth century, there was an outlaw that captured the imagination of the American public like no other. He can be compared to John Dillinger or Pretty Boy Floyd of the 1930s. Like both of these men, he garnered national press for his exploits; the well-known New York Times had a running commentary on his actions and deeds. This outlaw's name was Crawford Goldsby, better known as Cherokee Bill.

Cherokee Bill was every bit as colorful and outrageous as any criminal of the western frontier, perhaps even more so. There were a few things about him that made him truly unique for a famous desperado of the purple sage. First and foremost, he was an African American living in the Indian Territory. He was also Native American, Bill was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, as a freedman, from his mother's lineage.

Compare Cherokee Bill to Billy the Kid, (Billy Antrim), of New Mexico Territory fame. Although both outlaws received national media attention for their crimes while they were living, Billy the Kid was remembered and immortalized in books and films in the twentieth century; this did not occur for Cherokee Bill. Art Burton's newest book will help change that.

From his boyhood days in the Hill Country of Central Texas to the apogee of his career as Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific, Chester W. Nimitz reflected the best qualities of his German-European heritage and the frontier society of his native land. These two Texas authors bring out the influences that profoundly shaped the man Nimitz from his boyhood days, through his years as a cadet and finally to the development of the officer that subordinates would come to love and respect.