Forty Years' Gatherin's

Forty Years' Gatherin's by Van Cleve, Spike. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780913504390.

His horse gear, a bedroll and a warbag containing a change or two of clothes - these worldly goods were about all the old-time ranch hand could call his own. They were prized possessions, though, and together were usually referred to as "my forty year gatherins." The stories in this book are Spike Van Cleves forty years gatherins - cherished memories of rugged, honest living in the clean air and mountainous rangeland near Big Timber, Montana. Spike was born, raised and lived until he died in this land he called "the prettiest country God ever made . . .heaven cant be any better than this." There, he and his family-like his Dad and Granddad before him-ran the Van Cleve ranch, now a 20,000 acre expanse under the Crazy Mountains in south central Montana. Spike Van Cleve was a natural born storyteller who was educated at Harvard but received his "learning" on the Montana range riding his horses and doing an honest days work. In this collection of true stories about the land, the people, the horses and the good old times, Spike shifts like the wind, as in his touching story of "Cody and Terry," when the fatal crack of Spikes rifle signals the merciful end to a close partnership between a tearful cowboy and his favorite work horses. This sensitive, poetic story earned Spike Van Cleve a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.