Black Range Tales: Chronicling Sixty Years of Life and Adventure in the Southwest

From the rugged and treacherous Black Range, from a time when the prospector searched the hills for gold and the Apache reigned, comes a collection of tales that will leave one shaking their head in wonder and yearning for the bygone times.

James McKenna (Uncle Jimmie) came west as a young man in pursuit of the riches of the gold mines of western New Mexico. Falling in love with the lifestyle, he soon graduated from “pilgrim” to “sourdough” and spent the next 60 years in a frontier as wild and unforgiving as the peaks and canyons themselves.

Having survived multiple attacks by Apaches, lost diggings, a term as a western judge, bears, snakes, radium wells, burros, pilgrims, the devil, and treacherous mines; Uncle Jimmie sat down and did what he did best—told his tales. With tongue-in-cheek humor, a twinkle in his eye, and a way of making you feel as if you were there, his tales are as timeless as the mountains he once roamed.