The American Cowboy -
Stories and Mythology

by Richard Olsenius

As a photojournalist for over 50 years, I was always drawn to the American West, to the rolling prairies beyond the Missouri River, to a land that slowly rose to meet the continental divide. And along the way, seed caps morphed into stetsons and Red Wing boots into cowboy boots. Farms not able to survive the drier climate, gave way to open range land for cattle and sheep. And the land held a new gold rush of coal, oil and gas development. Then there were the newer entrepreneurs starting businesses in everything from chili making to gun-smithing.

As I traveled down many remote roads and boom towns gone bust, I learned that landscape is the key to understanding the West. Writer Lawrence Durrell once said, "To know a people you need only a little patience, a quiet moment and a place where you might listen to the whispered messages of their land."