By: E.J. (Bud) Cotton, Ethel Mitchell
ISBN: 0-88839-095-5
Binding: Trade Cloth
Size: 8.5" X 5.5"
Pages: 144
Photos: 77
Illustrations: 25
Publication Date: 1981

PR Highlights: Memories of Bud Buffalo Cotton's life.
PHOTO Highlights: Glossy 32 page b/w photo section. & line drawings.

Description: Memories of Bud Buffalo Cotton's life as a cowboy. A lively history of the range - its critters and its people - Bud Cotton's memories bring the West to life. He arrived from Quebec in 1906 - in love with horses and his dream of the his open rangeland. His first night out on the lone prairie was a scary affair but it didn't dim his enthusiasm for this new lifestyle, and he spent the next forty years in the saddle - taking time out only for military service. As night jingler, as day rider, as buffalo warden, he rode far and wide. He met all the challenges - the wildest broncos, the bitterest winters, the meanest buffs - and triumphed with a grin. A keen observer of both people and animals, his tales of his life on the range are at once amusing and perceptive. He sees the kindness beneath the rough and tough facade of the cowboy, smiles wryly at the naivete of the greenhorn, and almost bashfully acknowledges his affection for some of the animals he worked with.

Bud Cotton's memory, like his sapphire-blue eyes, has dimmed little as is evident in the glowing accounts set down in this fascinating little book. He tells of exciting years while riding for large outfits in Southern Alberta, including the Pat Burns outfit, from 1906 to 1913; riding alone as a night jingler, with a spooked saddle bunch in 1911 (the night the cyclone almost blew out Regina); helped to run 12,000 head of cattle through mange dip on the Blackfoot Reserve, near Cluny, Alberta; and assisted with the drive of wild horses along the Calgary Stampede route in '12. When Bud Cotton joined the warden staff at Wainwright Buffalo Park Reserve in 1913, he was to have more excitement in his life--such as having three or four horses killed under him during buffalo roundups. Bud is the only man living in Canada today, and possibly the world, who herded buffalo for more than twenty years from atop a horse. From many pleasurable hours spent in conversation with Bud Cotton, I saw, beneath the surface of this quiet-spoken man, a sensitive but unconquerable spirit. -- Ethal Mitchell, Calgary

Author Biography:

Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1890, Bud Cotton grew up in the Eastern Townships, but longed to ride range on the Western Plains. He was just 16 when he achieved his goal. His years as a cowpuncher have been captured in words --Mr. Cotton's work has appeared in two anthologies and many magazines and newspapers --and in wood, for he is also a noted wood carver whose sculptures have won innumerable awards. He now lives in Calgary.