Ann Bassett: Colorado's Cattle Queen - Softcover

Linda Wommack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870046195 ISBN 13: 9780870046193

Publisher: Caxton Press, 2018

Synopsis

2018 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Best Biography and the Caroline Bancroft Colorado History Award, this is the first full-length biography of an extraordinary woman in Colorado's history. Anna Marie Bassett was the first white child born in the notorious outlaw region of Colorado known as Brown's Park. She knew outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and became lifelong friends with Elza Lay.
When Tom Horn, hired by Ora Haley, owner of the Two Bar Cattle enterprise, murdered her fiance' Matt Rash, Ann Bassett launched a personal vendetta against Haley and the Two Bar ranch.
"Throwing caution to the winds, I pushed cattle off the range. I had to work alone. My neighbors did not support me in this, my challenge to Haley, and defiance of law and order. No other stockmen were responsible for what I did. I turned the heat against myself by an open declaration of war."
This is the account of Colorado's Cattle Queen, Ann Bassett, told largely in her own own words and supported by friends and enemies alike.
"Brown's Park brought back a poignant yearning to dash away and drive an avalanche of Two Bar cattle back across the divide. Then I would awaken from my dream to discover that I had been peeping into the past that cannot return. Live Two Bar cattle are conspicuously absent. The winds have buried all the dead ones."
Ann Bassett
Forward by well known Wild Bunch historians Dan Buck and Anne Meadows

About this title

About the Author

A Colorado native, Linda Wommack, is a Colorado historian and historical consultant. She has written eight books on Colorado history, including Murder in the Mile High City, Colorado's Landmark Hotels, From the Grave; Colorado's Pioneer Cemeteries, Our Ladies of the Tenderloin; Colorado's Legends in Lace, Colorado History for Kids, and Colorado's Historic Mansions and Castles. She has also contributed to two anthologies concerning Western Americana.

Linda has been a contributing editor for True West Magazine since 1995. She has also been a staff writer, contributing a monthly article for Wild West Magazine, since 2004. She has also written for The Tombstone Epitaph, the nation's oldest continuously published newspaper, since 1993. Linda also writes for several publications throughout her state.

Linda's research has been used in several documentary accounts for the national Wild West History Association, historical treatises of the Sand Creek Massacre, as well as critical historic aspects for the new Lawman & Outlaw Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado, which opened in 2007.

Linda feeds her passion for history with activities in many local, state, and national preservation projects, participating in historical venues, including speaking engagements, hosting tours, and is involved in historical reenactments across the state.

As a longtime member of the national Western Writers of America, she has served as a judge for the acclaimed national Spur Awards in Western Americana literature for eight years. She is a member of both the state and national Cemetery Preservation Associations, the Gilpin County Historical Society, the national Wild West History Association and an honorary lifetime member of the Pikes Peak Heritage Society. As a member of Women Writing the West, Linda has organized quarterly meetings for the Colorado members of WWW for the past seven years, served on the 2014 WWW Convention Steering Committee, and currently served as a board member.

From the Back Cover

This is the first full-length biography of an extraordinary woman in Colorado's history. Anna Marie Bassett was the first white child born in the notorious outlaw region of Colorado known as Brown's Park. She knew outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and became lifelong friends with Elza Lay. When Tom Horn, hired by Ora Haley, owner of the Two Bar Cattle enterprise, murdered her fiance' Matt Rash, Ann Bassett launched a personal vendetta against Haley and the Two Bar ranch. "Throwing caution to the winds, I pushed cattle off the range. I had to work alone. My neighbors did not support me in this, my challenge to Haley, and defiance of law and order. No other stockmen were responsible for what I did. I turned the heat against myself by an open declaration of war." This is the account of Colorado's Cattle Queen, Ann Bassett, told largely in her own own words and supported by friends and enemies alike. "Brown's Park brought back a poignant yearning to dash away and drive an avalanche of Two Bar cattle back across the divide. Then I would awaken from my dream to discover that I had been peeping into the past that cannot return. Live Two Bar cattle are conspicuously absent. The winds have buried all the dead ones." -Ann Bassett

Edition details

• Publisher: Caxton Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870046195
• ISBN 13: 9780870046193
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 247