"Below the Escondido Rim" details the evolution of a legendary Texas cattle ranch and the historic background in which it evolved. It is a story about dreams as big as the land itself, of hardship and success and failure, of long days in the saddle beneath a relentless sun, of booms and busts, boondoggles and burnouts, overextension and recoil. It is a story about trying to overcome adversity in an incredibly vast but difficult land.

Alpine was born a railroad town, but long before the whistle of the steam locomotive broke the silence of Alpine Valley, the nearby spring was a favored campground for prehistoric nomads and later for Spanish explorers and freighters along the Chihuahua Trail. When the Southern Pacific unfurled its line down from Paisano Pass in 1882, landowner Thomas Murphy saw opportunity and platted the town. In 1887, Alpine was chosen as the county seat, and with the opening of Sul Ross Normal College in 1920, the town became the academic hub of the region. Following a decade of prosperity, the Great...