The Desert Trail

by Dane Coolidge

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Dane Coolidge was born in Natick, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1873. He was brought up in Riverside, California, and received his higher education at Stanford and Harvard Universities. From 1895 to 1900 he was a field collector of mammals, birds and reptiles in Nevada, Arizona and Southern California for a number of institutions, including Stanford University, the British Museum, U. S. National Zoological Park, and the U. S. National Museum in Italy and France. On July 30, 1906, he married Nary Roberts, and the couple eventually made their home in Berkeley, California. In 1910, his first novel, Hidden Water, was published, and this was followed by a long succession of novels and some non-fiction, with California and Southwest locales. He and his wife collaborated on two books, The Navajo Indians (1930) and The Last of the Seris (1939). In addition, Coolidge contributed short stories and illustrated articles to several magazines, including Youth's Companion, Sunset, Redbook, Harper's and Country Life in America. Mr. Coolidge died in 1940; Mrs. Coolidge, in 1945.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata]

I am fairly certain that this is the first book I've read by Dane Coolidge, but it won't be the last. I was hooked when I first noticed it in June as a new addition at Project Gutenberg and while skimming the first paragraphs came across this sentence describing the city where the action begins:

"Its broad main street, lined with brick buildings and throbbing with automobiles, ran from the railroad straight to the south until, at a line, it stopped short and was lost in the desert."

Gee, sounds like Douglas, Arizona, where I used to live! And sure enough the city is Douglas, although Coolidge calls it 'Gadsden'. And our heroes Bud (cowboy/miner) and Phil (mining engineer) stay in the 'Cochise Hotel', which in real life is the Gadsden. Coolidge describes the lobby perfectly in Chapter 2, but I will share a picture instead: https://www.google.com.mx/search?q=th...

Bud and Phil are friends and 'pardners' (Coolidge explains the difference between this Western word and its Eastern twin 'partners') and have just come north out of the state of Chihuahua Mexico from a mine they were working. But the two men and plenty of others needed to leave because of the Revolution, which made things too dangerous for comfort.

However, in 'Gadsden' Bud meets an old-timer who has a proposition for him: a 'lost mine' further south, the chance of a lifetime if only a man is brave enough to risk it. Is Bud the man for this adventure? He doesn't want to go back into Mexico, he barely got out alive this time. Not that he is afraid. He was born and raised in Texas (and so has the Texan attitude towards Mexico and its people) but with all the fighting going on you never know what will happen or who will ride into your camp. But pardner Phil thinks the scheme is glorious. He is the opposite of Bud when it comes to Mexico. He has worked all over the country, speaks the language more fluently than Bud does with his cowboy Spanish, and appreciates the unique personality of the people. The contrast between the two men is marked, and of course this will lead to trouble, and some very exciting
adventures.

Our heroes pass through 'Agua Negra' (in reality Agua Prieta right across the border from Douglas) and eventually arrive at 'Fortuna'. Here I had some fun discussions with my husband Marco (born and raised in Mexico City but living in Agua Prieta when I met him) about which town Fortuna might be. I read out some of the descriptions and we finally decided that Fortuna is in real life Nacozari, a mining town where Marco spent time working on computer systems for the mining corporation back in the 80's.

Coolidge weaves history into his story not only by the thinly disguised place names but by descriptions of actual battles that took place in the area. He had a revolutionary general from Chihuahua coming into the state of Sonora and attacking 'Fortuna' and later 'Agua Negra'; and I still think this man was supposed to represent Pancho Villa, but Marco says Villa never went as far south as Nacozari. But after all, this is fiction, the truth needs to be stretched a little.

Coolidge is spot on with his descriptions of many aspects of life in Mexico. The graft (still around, unfortunately), the dawdling over official paperwork (ditto) and the people themselves. Like any group of people, there are bad and good, ignorant and educated, brave and cowardly. The author manages to portray all of his people realistically yet without that sense of bigoted hatred that I have seen in the pages of other books. Bud made me cringe a few times, but he had his reasons to mistrust, and truly even in real life not everyone understands the complexity of Mexico and its
people. I have lived here for six years now and am still learning.

Speaking of learning, one interesting character in The Desert Trail was the Yaqui Indian that Bud called Amigo. Through him, Coolidge introduced the terrible injustices dealt to the Yaqui by the Spaniards. I knew a little about these people before reading this book, and I have even more admiration for them now.

But the story? What happens after our pardners get down to Fortuna? Do they find their mine? Do they remain friends and pardners? Is there any romance around? (There HAS to be a girl involved somewhere, right?) Does that Villa wannabe manage to destroy everything? Ah, well.....let me put it this way. I stayed up very late holding my breath while the last few chapters played out, and then accidentally woke up Marco by hollering at what happens in the last few scary paragraphs. I couldn't help myself, it was SO not what I was expecting! But it couldn't have ended any better and I can't wait to read more of Coolidge's work and see if he can enchant me again as thoroughly as he did this time.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Perry Whitford]

'Pardners' Bud Hooker and Phil De Lancey go to secure the Eagle Tail mine just south of the Mexican border, "the land of mañana and broken promises," where they both fall for Gracia Aragon, the daughter of their rival to the claim.

Don Cipriano Aragon is not their only problem, they also have to deal with local rivals for the hand of Gracia, rurales and roaming revoltosos waiting to pounce on the town of Fortuna. Hooker makes one friend, a Yaqui Indian he calls Amigo.

I enjoyed it, like a surprisingly good B-movie Western from the 1950s starring Robert Ryan or Sterling Heyden in the Bud Hooker role.

[Tripp]

Southwest