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American lore has slighted the cowgirl, although at least one can still be found in nearly every ranching community. Like her male counterpart, she rides and ropes, understands land and stock, and confronts the elements. The writer and photographer Teresa Jordan traveled sixty thousand miles in the American West, talking with more than a hundred authentic cowgirls running ranches and performing in rodeos. The result is a fascinating book that also situates the cowgirl in history and literature. A new preface and updated bibliography have been added to this Bison Book edition.

"Let Jordan introduce you to these women. You won’t encounter them anywhere else. Every one of them is worth knowing. Their lives are heroic in the most literal sense of the word. Cowgirls are American originals."—Los Angeles Times

"Valuable for its sympathetic portrait of western life and western women, for the historical anecdotes that enliven its pages and for its nitty-gritty detail about ranch life. To read it is to share its author''s affectionate regard for a vanishing way of life."—San Francisco Chronicle

"An absorbing portrait of the highly independent, often colorful women who have long stood next to the men of the American West."—Publishers Weekly