Texas argonauts: Isaac H. Duval and the California Gold Rush (Publication / Book Club of California)

Customer Reviews:

A memorable story.......2006-07-08

I read this book a few years ago and loved it. The story of the Texas and Pacific Coal and Oil company seems so typically American. From the crooked Yankee come South who recognizes the coal that was a nuisance to the farmer scratching out a living, the New York financiers who put the enterprise on a secure financial foundation and did very well by themselves in the process, the immigrant miners, prosperous company town, self-taught geololgist who opened up the Ranger oil field, a gas-pump juckey who earned a raise in the midst of the depression selling lube jobs and treating his wife to a mid-week hamburger, the names which dot Fort Worth buildings and streets, this book covers and links up an America and Texas from frontier to the outlines of its present corporate complexity.

Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest (Barker Texas History Center Series)

Average customer rating:

Another classic from Dobie
A masterpiece of folklore
A Fine Book which Improves With Each Reading
Dobie Does it Best
one of my "ten best books"

Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest (Barker Texas History Center Series)
J. Frank Dobie
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0292710526

Book Description

"Dobie has discovered for us a native Arabian Night."

—Chicago Evening Post

"As entrancing a volume as one is likely to pick up in a month of Sundays."

—The New York Times

"This is the best work ever written on hidden treasure, and one of the most fascinating books on any subject to come out of Texas."

—Basic Texas Books

Written in 1930, Coronado's Children was one of J. Frank Dobie's first books, and the one that helped gain him national prominence as a folklorist. In it, he recounts the tales and legends of those hardy souls who searched for buried treasure in the Southwest following in the footsteps of that earlier gold seeker, the Spaniard Coronado.

"These people," Dobie writes in his introduction, "no matter what language they speak, are truly Coronado's inheritors.... l have called them Coronado's children. They follow Spanish trails, buffalo trails, cow trails, they dig where there are no trails; but oftener than they dig or prospect they just sit and tell stories of lost mines, of buried bullion by the jack load... "

This is the tale-spinning Dobie at his best, dealing with subjects as irresistible as ghost stories and haunted houses.

Customer Reviews:

Another classic from Dobie.......2006-07-14

Not at the level for me of Tales of Old-time Texas but still an excellent collection of stories from J. Frank Dobie. This collection is focused, as the title should tell you, on buried treasure, treasure maps and things of that nature. The book is still a joy to read and I don't understand why more of the country doesn't know about Mr. Dobie.

A masterpiece of folklore .......2004-12-29

J. Frank Dobie was a folklorist of Texas and "Coronado's Children" may be his best and most famous book. He was born in 1888 and bridged the old west and modern times. CC was written in 1930 when many of the old timers, who knew how to spin a yarn, were still around. Dobie sought them out and recorded their stories of lost gold and buried treasure. He was also a serious scholar who rummaged through Spanish and American archives to give authenticity to his stories -- and he was not adverse to saddling up a horse and doing a little on-the-ground research.

"Coronado's Children" has inspired thousands of otherwise normal people to pick up a shovel and head off to some god-forsaken wasteland to dig in the ground looking for the "Lost San Saba Mine," the booty of pirate Jean Lafitte, or the $2 million the James boys supposedly buried in the Wichita mountains of Oklahoma. These are the kind of stories that dreams are made of -- and who knows? Some of them might be true.

Dobie has collected nineteen tales in CC and he tells them beautifully in prose that is conversational and colorful. He has enormous respect for the land and the Indians, the Mexicans, and the Anglos who live in the harsh, dry country of the southwest. An oft-used adjective to describe his stories is "magical" and so they are. "Coronado's Children" is an American classic.

Smallchief

A Fine Book which Improves With Each Reading.......2000-06-29

The author, a premier folklorist from Texas, writes about the Southwest and the type of treasure with which nature consoles the seeker -- "shadows for want of substantials." Unlike Coronado, the author seeks the treasure that emanates from the heart and mind. This is a fine book written seven decades ago and improves with each reading.

Dobie talks about this land of shadows where we meet Alice Henderson, who faced down fifty cow thieves; Don Milton Favor, who built his own fort while making treaties with hostile Indians; and Cheetwah, a mystic Indian chief who vanished into the mountains to keep vigil over hidden treasures. These and other characters spring from the pages of Dobie's book with a vigor and purpose that makes the heart sing.

The Texas of the Big Bend country is where Dobie's prose satisfies, "Outlandish pictures painted down the sides of caves by aborigines which no white man can now decipher...a jagged and gashed land where legend has placed a lost canyon, its broad floor carpeted with grass that is always green and watered by gushing springs, its palisaded walls imprisoning a herd of buffalo...somewhere in this land credulity has fixed a petrified forest with tree trunks seven hundred feet long."

The author claims, "After I hear a tale I do all I can to improve it," and this is an understatement. Readers who possess a sense of wonder will enjoy this book. History often cloaks personages with dusty trappings, stuffy sayings, and mixed motives so time has faded the awe that Drake, Cortez, Raleigh, and Coronado experienced. Dobie illuminates the wonder of the children of Coronado as they chase their dreams and draws us into their world of enchantment.

Francisco Coronado never found his golden riches or the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola during his time in the Southwest. When he returned in 1542, and told the truth about his barren search, he wasn't believed. One person who did believe said, "Granted he did not find the riches of which he had been told -- he found instead a place in which to search for them."

And the search continues. For centuries Coronado's vision of wealth has lured countless thousnads to the Southwest where tradition and myth have marked mountains, rivers, and ancient ruins with boundless treasures. This book follows long forgotten Spanihs trails, buffalo trails, cow trails, and areas where there are no trails as searchers dig for riches which eludes their grasp. Others, rather than searching, have sat and told stories of lost mines, buried treasure and of ghostly patrones who guard the treasures -- adding layers to the myths that abound in the land of Coronado.

This book lovingly describes Spanish influence and tradition on the Sountwest and combines a terrific cast of characters, interesting situations, and Dobie's unmatched skill at weaving a tale. The author's footnotes are at the end of the text and are filled with tales and legends of lost mines and treasures. There's an interesting section on the elaborate Code of Treasure Symbols used by the Spaniards. An excellent glossary of idioms used in the Southwest follows that section.

There is more to the American West than gunfighters, farmers, bankers, cowboys, and miners. The author has given us the realm of the dreamers.

Dobie Does it Best.......1999-10-15

Perhaps the best folklore book ever written about lost mines and buried treasure, caves full of gold bars, and Spanish silver. As in most of Dobie's writings, this is not straight history but Dobie's version of other people stories with a large dose of Dobie in all of them. A Texas classic.

one of my "ten best books".......1998-08-24

I read this book 30 years ago. I am now 75, and I rank it as one of the most fascinating books of my lifetime. It opened up a whole world of places and things that are long gone, but which deserve to be remembered. I believe that I have since read almost everything that Frank Dobie has written, but believe this is still the best.

Average customer rating:

4 TH IN THE TEXAS Series - EXCELLENT - KEEPER
What A GREAT STORY!!!!
TEXAS GOLD is a winner!! Headed for the keeper shelf.
Faith and love

Texas Gold
Carolyn Davidson
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0373292635

Customer Reviews:

4 TH IN THE TEXAS Series - EXCELLENT - KEEPER.......2005-04-17

Faith Hudson is a friend and neighbor to Nicholas Garvey and his wife, Lin [from Tempting A Texan].

Nicholas and sheriff Brace Caulfield have kept a watchful eye on Faith. Faith has moved from her squatter cabin to Nick's old house on the ranch that Nick obtained from Marshall Jonathan Cleary a couple of years back.

Faith has learned to do for herself and supplies eggs and produce from her garden for self support. She is no longer the pampered wife of Bostonian Max McDowell, no longer his trophy wife. Yet she knows that someday she will have to face Max again.

She is a bit stunned when he shows up with intentions of wooing her again, to return to Boston and their marriage. That he offers and actually does do work around her farm is another eye opening experience. Faith does need his help when her golden Palomino mare gives birth to beautiful golden filly for Nick.

Max is not sure that he likes the relationships between the sheriff and Nick, with his wife. Max does continue to show much restraint with Faith in trying to gain her trust and dependance again. But she is not having it. She continues to keep Max at arm's length. Until .........

Then Nick has to return to his Bank, some 50 miles away, and iron out some problems and he asks Max and Faith to stay at his victorian house with Lin and the children. Yup! danged if someone doesn't try to steal Nick's herd of cattle. Max gets wounded trying to protect Faith when she rides to his rescue.

What a tender, lively story! Oh boy, Max's mother [the trouble maker] shows up and insists that Max return home to Boston to take care of business. Faith still refuses to return to Boston.

Oh, you have to read the story to find out the results these two lonely, misguided lovers and how they deal with their problems. Poor Brace. [his story comes next]

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- KEEP THE SET! Well worth the shelf space.

What A GREAT STORY!!!!.......2004-10-03

I loved all the books in the Texas Series ("A Marriage By Chance", "The Texan", "Tempting a Texan" and the fourth in that series was "Texas Gold"). It was such a good book. From the beginning, you are drawn into the story and it is sweet to see that although Faith guards her heart against being hurt, Max is very tender and patient. There are many things they discover about each other along their journey of the heart. I highly recommend TEXAS GOLD. It's a keeper. I have gone back to re-read it several times. Thanks Carolyn for your great work!!!!!

TEXAS GOLD is a winner!! Headed for the keeper shelf........2003-07-28

I so enjoy the hard working farmers and ranchers that Ms. Davidson creates. Her characters are usually ordinary country folk that have to work from season to season to survive in the harsh environment. That is how Faith Hudson (McDowell) is in TEXAS GOLD.

Three years before Faith walked away from her workaholic husband and mental abusive mother in law who lived with them, in Boston. She struggled on little or no money to scratch out an existent in Texas........why Texas, she didn't have winter clothes and thought it would be warmer.

When Max found her, she was a total different woman that the young girl he married. Before she was his trophy wife, dressed in satin and lace, never voicing her opinion, letting Max make all the decisions. He adored her before but now he has fallen in love with her and will let nothing stand in his way of making her fall in love with him again to bring her home.

This one is going on the keeper shelf.

Faith and love.......2003-07-19

Back Cover description: Faith Hudson was falling in love with her husband! Her marriage was a disaster.
Her husband was better off in Boston without her. It had been clear to her then, and it was even clearer now that she'd traveled west and made her home on a Texas ranch. She had no plans of ever returning.
But Max Hudson wanted her back. It had taken him three years to find her, and he wasn't going home without her. It was a matter of principle...
Until he realized he was more in love with the woman Faith had become than he ever could have imagined. And that love just might be what Faith needed all along.

The previous book, TEMPTING A TEXAN, is where we met everyone but Max. TEXAS GOLD is a good story, I just hoped for a romance between Faith and the sheriff, but it is not to be. In this book, we find out Faith left/ran away from Max 3 years ago. This story is about their growth as adults, and what they find in each other that makes their love stronger

Average customer rating:
The Law Of Attraction (Silhouette Fortunes of Texas Reunion)
Kristi Gold
Manufacturer: Silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
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Once A Rebel (The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion)

Military Man (Silhouette: The Fortunes of Texas Reunion)

Keeping Her Safe (The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion)

The Reckoning (The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion)

Fortune's Legacy (Fortune's of Texas)

ASIN: 0373389337

Book Description

"There's nothing more intriguing than a strong woman who can put me in my place." --Daniel Fortune, assistant district attorney

Alisha Hart can't believe how arrogant fellow lawyers can be. Take assistant district attorney Daniel Fortune. She knows his kind -- slick dressing, smooth talking, with a hunger for power. But when playful banter turns egotistical, Daniel offers Alisha a bet she can't refuse -- whoever loses the San Antonio Streaker case must agree to do one thing for the winner. And it's got to be a surprise.

Book Description

Black Gold to Bluegrass is the first such work that concentrates wholly on the Second Spindletop Oil Boom and what happened afterward—taking the story from the oil fields of Southeast Texas and Louisiana to the Bluegrass of Kentucky.

After partnering with Thomas Peter Lee of Houston, Frank Yount, water-well driller turned wildcatter, struck it rich, and the Yount-Lee Oil Company began a remarkable march that almost took it to the top of the oil industry. Although he used some of his wealth to benefit his fellowman, Frank Yount, also put together a priceless collection of antique violins, and some of the classiest and most expensive automobiles of the day, including three Duesenbergs and a Cord. He built a state-of-the-art Saddlebred training facility in Beaumont, hired dashing horseman Cape Grant to run it, and directed him to take the horses of Spindletop Stables to competitive shows throughout the county—and win!

Frank Yount died young at age 53 in November 1933. Within two years, Pansy—his wife and principal heir—and the investors in the Yount-Lee Oil Company sold the enterprise to Houston attorney Wright Morrow for then what amounted to the third-largest financial transaction in American business history. Morrow, who later became one of the giants of Texas politics, immediately parceled off most of Yount-Lee's oil assets to Stanolind (Standard Oil of Indiana), a subsidiary of the giant Standard Oil conglomerate which later became Amoco. In spite of the magnitude of this transaction, when expressed in Depression era dollars, it was later widely acknowledged that no one, save perhaps Frank Yount himself, fully understood the astronomical significance and value of the Yount-Lee holdings.

Pansy, no less independent and colorful than her husband (but somewhat more flamboyant) took her part of the family's fortune and moved Spindletop Stables to a 1,066 acre show farm in the horse country of Kentucky, building a 45,000 square foot mansion which she named Spindletop Hall, the centerpiece of the new and extremely successful Spindletop Farm. The farm became the most innovative saddle horse breeding facility of its time, and Pansy became a legend in horse circles.

Using an array of previously unknown primary source materials from the Yount-Manion family archives, photographs never before published, and recently discovered film, McKinley and Riley present a book filled with incredible acts of generosity, long-standing controversies, intrigues, and twists and turns at every point.

Black Gold to Bluegrass is a must for general readers and scholars alike, whose interests lie in Saddlebreds, antique automobiles, or violins; and for oil enthusiasts, the book paints a rags-to-riches story of a true wildcatter turned contemporary hero who embodies the American dream.

Customer Reviews:

SPINDLETOP.......2006-05-17

Really a fascinating read. The saga of the Yount's, it truly a Texas tale. I really enjoyed the vintage photos, I have seen the oil manisons in Beaumont and they are quite spectacular, though the most famous the McFaddin Mansion was not shown, but this was a book that focused mainly on the Younts and though their mansion on Calder is long gone, the Great Gatsbyish Caldwood mansion is still extant and still breathtaking. This book is well researched and I believe anyone with an interest in a great story will enjoy this book: Mrs. Yount was one of a kind. Highly recommended.

Great and accurate book.......2006-02-16

This is a very readable and very interesting account of the rise of the Yount-Lee Oil Company and Pansy Younts subsequent contribution to the American Saddlebred Horse industry. This is unlike previous accounts in that this account is ACCURATE and based completely in fact. I enjoyed it immensly and would recommend it to one and all.

an excellent and very readable book.......2005-05-22

Black Gold To Bluegrass is an excellent and very readable book about the Second Spindletop Oil Boom, which occurred in 1925 in Beaumont, Texas. The authors have very diligently researched all their facts and have made the people involved in this story seem very real to the reader.

Her Ardent Sheikh (Texas Cattleman's Club: Lone Star Jewels) (Silhouette Desire, No 1358)

Average customer rating:

3 and a half stars
Passion & intrigue will keep you on edge through this book!
:)

Her Ardent Sheikh (Texas Cattleman's Club: Lone Star Jewels) (Silhouette Desire, No 1358)
Kristi Gold
Manufacturer: silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Silhouette Desire | Series | Romance | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0373763581

Customer Reviews:

3 and a half stars.......2004-07-19

I was on the fence between 4 and 3 and a half as I liked this book OK, but I've certainly read better, and I've certainly read better Arab/American love stories too. It was the first book I read of the Cattleman series, although I plan on reading shortly Matt and Helena's story, which intrigues me greatly. There's much tweaking in this book from the other romances, although they have already happened, so it does pique your interest, which I'm sure is the whole point.
This book was strange in that I actually liked the man much better than the woman. I thought Jamie was rather egotistical in many ways, and entirely too head-strong for her own good. I've noticed that some authors in their quest to make their woman very strong and with a backbone, they tend to overreach it and make them so head-strong, they are plain stupid. That's Jamie to a tee. She's so full of what SHE wants, she doesn't care what the consequences are. For anything she wants. She makes foolish mistakes even if she knows her life is in danger, but hey, she wants to have a horse-back ride. She wants Sheikh Ben, so she's going to seduce him whether he likes it or not. He did, of course, like it, but he was also trying to be honorable, and I thought she was pretty careless about that. Ben had a tendency to come off as unemotional throughout the book, but I tend to think it was the fault of the author to rush the book forward, so didn't go into depth in some places she could have. I think Ben was the most more mature individual of the two where Jamie acted quite frequently like an adolescent.
All in all, it was a nice romance, and they made a good couple, both head-strong and independent. Should make for an interesting marriage, and I hope mention is made of them to see how they are in future books. I recommend it.

Passion & intrigue will keep you on edge through this book!.......2001-12-10

Jamie and Sheikh Ben Rassad have some cultural differences to overcome but are deeply attracted to each other from the start. The challenges he has protecting her are made more difficult when she decides to be difficult. Both are strong characters who must learn to adjust to each other as they fall in love. He is the one who realizes he is falling in love with her first while she thinks it's more physical. It's a good story filled with intrigue and passion.

I haven't read the other books in this series yet so these characters were all new to me. This was also my first book from Silhouette's 'Desire' line which is more sexually descriptive than I've ever read in a romance novel before. The sex wasn't overdone but it may make you blush depending on the type of books you're used to reading. Enjoy! :)

:).......2001-06-05

If you have been reading the Texas Cattleman's Club-Lone Star Jewels series than you know that Sheikh Ben Rassad promised to protect Jamie Morris. Jamie is in danger from the man that stole the jewels belonging to the town of Royal. This person will do anything, even kill to get the jewels back, and for some reason he is under the assumption that Jamie has the jewels. Ben is trying to be the honorable man that he is and protect Jamie while he keeps his feelings for her to himself. This, however, proves to be most difficult since Jamie sets out to seduce Ben. The problem comes when after Jamie gets her way and Ben realizes he took her innocence that he proposes marriage. Ben and Jamie are from different cultures and Ben feels that marriage is the honorable thing to do, plus she may be carrying his heir. Jamie, of course, wants him to love her and not see her as an obligation. So, after getting Ben into bed like she wanted she high tails it out of there and refuses to give Ben a chance. She insists in her head that Ben must tell her that he loves her before she will marry him (yet she never told him that she loved him). This was a good story even if I did not care much for Jamie. Of course, I do not think that I would have cared for this book as much if I had not already read the other books in the series.

Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Burried Treasures of the Southwest (Barker Texas History Center Series)

Average customer rating:

Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Burried Treasures of the Southwest (Barker Texas History Center Series)
J. Frank Dobie
Manufacturer: Univ of Texas Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Tales of Old-Time Texas

ASIN: 029271050X

The Spider Rock Treasure: A Texas Mystery of Lost Spanish Gold

Average customer rating:

Best book on Texas Treasure written
Interesting set of mysteries need more investigation
a must-read for all treasure seekers
Outstanding
Enjoyable Texas Mystery

The Spider Rock Treasure: A Texas Mystery of Lost Spanish Gold
Steve Wilson
Manufacturer: Eakin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Spain | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1571687769

Book Description

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 which lured treasure seekers and captured them in its mystery. But the question still remains: Has the Spider Rock treasure ever been found?

Customer Reviews:

Best book on Texas Treasure written.......2007-08-01

I have read several books concerning treasure in the state of Texas, but this is the best so far. Wilson has obviously very carefully researched all aspects of the entire story and has presented everything in an exceptionally readable, enjoyable and informative format. He has a way of telling the story that makes the story even more fascinating than it is. I now understand concepts and ideas that were unclear from previous accounts. This book is as close as you will get to the actual treasure hunt today. An excellent read!

Interesting set of mysteries need more investigation.......2006-11-04

I was intrigued by the supposed treasure maps and all the people who had been involved in looking for this treasure. A follow-up study involving professional archeologists might shed more light on the true meaning and sources of these maps.

a must-read for all treasure seekers.......2005-08-26

This book exceeds all others on the background of the Spider Rock. Steve is able to draw you into the stories of the Spider Rock. If you're interested in diving deeper into the mystery and history of Spanish gold, look no further than this book. I found it to be a thorough guide to the treasure - complete with maps, photographs and clues into the secrets behind Spider Rock. Enjoy, truly a fascinating read.

Outstanding.......2005-08-26

This book, like all of Wilson's is a fascinaing read that makes history come alive. I have a weakness for treasure books and this one certainly did not disappoint.

Enjoyable Texas Mystery.......2005-01-26

I certainly enjoyed Steve Wilson's new book, "Spider Rock Treasure: A Texas Mystery of Lost Spanish Gold". The mystery itself and the many unique events that have occured concerning this strange mystery are fascinating, and Wilson has done an excellent job of pulling together a significant amount of history (his bibliogrpahy is very extensive, reflecting many years of careful research). Wilson also weaves into the book some other treasure mysteries which have existed through the years within the same general vicinity of Texas (northwest Texas). My family owns a prominent parcel of land that is within the subject matter of the book, and it is fun for us to have this book about this unique country. There are some interesting historic sites in this country, and it is very good to have that history preserved here in this book. However, the book reflects that many early and even modern day treasure seekers (and many of their names are given in the book)have selfishly and/or unwittingly permanently destoryed historic sites in their personal quests for treasure. Unfortunately, some sites have been confused for sites relating to treasure, when in fact they are simply interesting historic sites. Over the years my family has been frustrated with treasure seekers who have destroyed some of these historic sites (sites such as Indian tepee or prayer rings, which are circles of rocks left by the Plains Indians, which treasure seekers have unwittingly mistaken or assumed had something to do with a treasure and have moved or spread the rocks and dug all around them). Hopefully all those who read this book will enjoy this fascinating and wonderful mystery and will also come away with a desire to appreciate and preserve historic sites, as opposed to disrupting or destroying interesting and/or hisitoric sites, which are be better served explored by professional archeoligists and historians than weekend treasure hunters. Enjoy!

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