Riding for the Brand: 150 Years of Cowden Ranching

Award-winning writer Michael Pettit, a Cowden descendant and former rancher, offers a compelling portrait of this genuine American ranching family. Riding for the Brand spans six generations and two states to serve up a real slice of the Old West, complete with cowboys and Indians, cattle and buffalo, open range and barbed wire.

Pettit skillfully blends family saga with an urbanite's firsthand look at life on today's 50,000-acre Cowden Ranch, where the one dependable factor is the constant wind. Riding for the Brand traces the evolution of the Texas and New Mexico cattle business from the era of intimate ranching communities to today's oil-enriched or corporate operations. But it's also the story of one man's search for identity through his connections to a family, a place, and a way of life.