The Passing of the Frontier

The Passing of the Frontier, subtitled A Chronicle of the Old West, is by Emerson Hough. The contents list names chapters called, among others, "The Frontier In History", "The Cattle Trails" and "The Cowboy". The chapter called "The Frontier In History" says of the frontier, "There is no word in the English language more stirring, more intimate, or more beloved."

The author writes that "the Old West generally means the old cow country of the West", meaning "the high plains and the lower foothills running from the Rio Grande to the northern boundary." Spanish influence is stressed: "Scores of Spanish words are written indelibly in the language of the Plains," and "The frontier of the cow-range never was Saxon alone." The author says that "The Santa Fe Trail showed Spanish influences; that of the Platte Valley remained far more nearly American." The writer recalls being in the town of Belle Fourche in 1912 to see "the last hundreds of the last great Belle Fourche herd" come down to the cattle chutes.