Coyotes I Have Known

By John Duncklee

Book Overview

Novice rancher John Duncklee saw his share of buzzards during the 1950s while husbanding a herd of cattle through Arizona's worst drought in 400 years, and he told the story of those days in the captivating book Good Years for the Buzzards. Duncklee spent the next few years buying Mexican steers in Sonora, farming in the Santa Cruz Valley, and raising quarter horses on a small ranch near Nogales, Arizona. During that time he found that he had to cope with a different kind of creature.Duncklee discovered that most of the people he met were honest and easy to do business with; but he also discovered coyotes--people who weren't necessarily con artists but who were sly and cunning like their canine counterparts and who needed to be dealt with accordingly. Human coyotes, Duncklee learned, can be great company, but transacting business with them can be risky. Coyotes I Have Known recounts Duncklee's life during the early 1960s while he lived and worked along the United States-Mexico border. It introduces the people he encountered from both cultures and describes the many problems he faced in the livestock business--particularly in exporting Mexican steers to the United States. "The world of business seems to teem with coyotes," he writes, and he observes that his naivet? and idealism often made him easy prey for such a person, "who often appears when least expected."Duncklee's book recalls life along the border in a time that, while fairly recent, has already vanished. Maquiladoras, illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and economic problems have all had an impact on Sonora and have become major influences in changing the way of life in southern Arizona as well. Fortunately for today's readers, Duncklee has captured both the romance and the grittiness of western life as experienced not long ago.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816516111
• ISBN13: 9780816516117
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful sketch of the border country back when

This is a wonderful book that should be read with GOOD YEARS FOR THE BUZZARDS, Duncklee's account of his attempt at ranching in the drought-ridden '50s. COYOTES is something of a follow-up, now finding the author buying and selling cattle and horses in the border country between Arizona and Mexico in the 1960s. Having read both, what strikes me is Duncklee's restless spirit, a hallmark of Western pioneers, where green grass and gold nuggets are just beyond the next range. At one point Duncklee even claims that he would give it all up for a real home. Did he ever find one? The end of the book hints at changes to come, much of which probably had to do with Duncklee switching gears and going into writing and teaching. Don't know the guy, so I can't say. Is he a cowboy, as the other review claims? Maybe. Seems more like a lot of the gentlemen I used to know in the 60s and 70s rattling around the stock pens and rodeo arenas of Arizona, one foot in the Old West and one hitched to a bar stool. Find both books and enjoy.

I hope you like Cowboys...

...because that's what you'll get. I've met John Duncklee and he's a charismatic cowboy who's lived more in his life than three men could fit in their's. His charm and sincerity translates on the page to weave a gripping narative of his experiences and revelations as he struggles to make a fortune doing what he loves, roping and wrangling. While the book is educational and engaging on the subject of ranching, herding, and spotting a cheat, it tends to lose the audience if they're not already absolutely fascinated with those subjects. No one could write about being a modern cowboy better than John Dunklee, but the reader must be in love with cowboys.