the old west

This is respectfully dedicated to the "American Cowboy." His was the saga sparked bt the turmoil that followed the Civil War, and the passing of more than a century has by no means diminished the flame.

True, the old days and the old ways are but treasured memmories, and the old trails have grown dim with the ravages of time, but the spirit of the cowboy lives on.

In my travels-to Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona-I always find something that reminds me of the Old West. While I am walking these plains and mountains for the first time, there is the feeling that a part of me is eternal. thatI have known the old trails before. I beleive it is the undying spirit of the frontier calling, allowing through the minds eye, to step back in time. What is the appeal of the Old West, of the American Frontier?

It has been epitomized by some as the dark and bloody period in American history. Its heros--Crockett, Bowie, Hickock, Earp-have been reviled and critcized. Yet the Old West lives on larger than life.

It has become a symbol of freedom, when there was always another mountain to climb and another river to cross; when a dispute between two men was settled not with expensive lawyers but with fists, knives or guns, Barbaric? Maybe. But some things never change. When the cowboy rode into pages off American history he left behind a legacy that lives within the hearts of us all.

Ralph Compton