Product Description

The daughter and granddaughter of Wyoming ranchers, Teresa Jordan gives us a lyrical and superbly evocative book that is at once a family chronicle and a eulogy for the land her people helped shape and in time were forced to leave. Author readings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1140545 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05-31
• Released on: 1994-05-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Through four generations Jordan's family lived on a ranch in southeastern Wyoming. When it was sold, she felt she had lost a way of life. She attempts to resolve that loss in this charming memoir, recalling incidents in her childhood and examining the lives of female family members. We meet Jordan's paternal grandmother ("a difficult woman"), her mother and her great-aunt--all women who had to accept difficult lives that included hard physical labor and its attendant dangers. Noting the decline of the family farm, Jordan regrets that our culture teaches us to value a professional life more than one tied to the land. Her community, Iron Mountain, numbers 30 today, down from a population of 2000 a century ago.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Jordan grew up on a ranch in the Iron Mountain area of southeastern Wyoming. She presents a family album of memories about grandparents, parents, brothers, aunts, friends, and hired hands who had an influence on her thoughts and actions. The result is a no-holds-barred description of the joys and sorrows of ranch life, the hard economic times, the injuries and broken bones, and the endurance required for survival. Jordan relates how she longed to return to the ranch when she was away or living elsewhere. She describes the excitement of calving time and of breaking and riding horses and the importance of cattle in the ranch environment. Readers who like stories about life on the ranch will identify with many events in this book. Recommended for collections on Northwest lore.
- Irwin Weintraub, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Piscataway, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
A heartfelt tribute to the Wyoming family ranch on which Jordan (Cowgirls, 1982) was raised, and to the hardy people who chose that difficult way of life. Part of the proud fourth generation to run cattle on the high, windswept prairie of Iron Mountain, Wyoming, Jordan was also a sad witness to the end of that tradition as the ranch passed out of her family's hands in 1978, lost in an irreversible trend that shrank the local population from 2,000 at the turn of the century to 30 today. Images of a childhood fondly remembered--the awe-inspiring view from a local landmark, time spent with the oldest family members--combine with more unpleasant recollections, such as the sudden death of Jordan's mother and the subsequent sale of the ranch. The memories appear in the context of more recent events, including the author's 1991 wedding on the ranch and an earlier return to Iron Mountain to take part in the calving season. Linking past and present intricately and intimately, describing family dynamics as well as the vicissitudes of everyday existence, Jordan creates both a bittersweet personal chronicle and a record of an endangered lifestyle, with the critical role of female forebears receiving particular attention. A sensitive, colorful series of contemplations, ultimately more impressionistic than cohesive but still a valuable rendering of family life and ranching in the American West. (Ten pages of b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Great book with a deeper meaning
Jordan's book was much more than ranching and her life, she tells us about her feelings and thoughts that are associated with her life events. The reader becomes indulged in her feelings are can feel empathy for her. This book is a down to earth, real life story that is worthy of reading by most people.

It's a great read and good therapy all in one.
I thought, "This will be a nice distraction." Boy, did I underestimate this book. Ms. Jordan takes you with her through her life and her relatives' lives. You feel the draw of the west and the power of the Wyoming wind. Getting caught up in the struggles of the various generations, and Ms. Jordan's, sheds light on your own life. As Ms. Jordan heals, the opportunity to resolve one's own conflicts seems more possible. This is a wonderful escape and marvelous therapy all rolled into one.

A great book about the west, focusing on women's experiences
I have really enjoyed this book. It's rare to get such an intimate view of ranch life, and especially of the women who made/make their lives out West. Teresa Jordan is a terrific writer. I admire her spare, evocative prose. This book should not be overlooked in the current craze for memoirs.