Six Years With the Texas Rangers

The Closest Thing to Living It

"I early conceived a passionate desire to become a frontiersman and live a life of adventure....There was an element of danger about it that appealed to any red-blooded American. All of western Texas was a real frontier then, and for one who loved nature and God's own creation, it was a paradise on earth.

The hills and valleys were teeming with deer and turkey, thousands of buffalo and antelope were on the plains, and the streams all over Texas were full of fish. Bee caves and bee trees abounded. In the spring time one could travel for hundreds of miles on a bed of flowers.

Oh, how I wish I had the power to describe the wonderful country as I saw it then. How happy I am now in my old age that I am a native Texan and saw the grand frontier before it was marred by the hand of man."

So said Jim Gillett, who in the spring of 1875 enlisted in Company D of the Texas Rangers...at the age of seventeen. He spent the next six years living the adventurous life he had sought: fighting Indians, bringing the Ranger's brand of law to the frontier, and having a glorious time.

Jeff Dykes placed it on his list of the ten most outstanding books on the West. He said, "I heard Capt. Gillett tell this story and it reads like he talked - you simply live those six years with him."

J. Frank Dobie said, "One of the most engaging and enlightening chronicles that I have ever read...Once you start reading Captain Gillett's story of the dog that guarded the Indian-besieged camp in Crow Flat; of the chase of old Victorio, Apache, into Mexico; of the round-up of outlaws in the Junction country; of the desperate ride after Sam Bass; of the Peg Leg robber gang on the San Saba; of the long ride with General Baylor from San Antonio to El Paso, you can not stop until you have finished the story, and then you want to begin the next."

Are you ready for an adventure?