BLACK COWBOY: The Life and Legend of...

BLACK COWBOY: The Life and Legend of George McJunkin by Franklin Folsom (Roberts Rinehart: $7.95, illustrated). This gently didactic juvenile biography documents the life of George McJunkin (1851?-1922), one of the West’s greatest cowboys. Born into slavery in Texas, McJunkin sought his fortune in New Mexico, where he became one of the few cowboys to make the transition from free-range grazing to fenced cattle rearing successfully. As the foreman of the Crowfoot Ranch, a substantial property owned by a white doctor, he supervised the work of the hired hands, many of whom were white--a rare achievement in 19th-Century America. McJunkin’s curiosity about geology led to his discovery of the Folsom Site, an eroded gully that hid the remains of an extinct giant bison with a stone spear point stuck in one of its ribs. This important find provided the first concrete evidence that the ancestors of the Amerindians arrived in North America much earlier than anthropologists had previously believed. Folsom’s lively biography of this intelligent, well-respected man is sure to delight any young reader who enjoys a good Western.