List of Illustrations, viii Acknowledgments, ix Introduction, xi Prologue: Five Days in August, 1 Part I The Open Land 1. Gray Ocean of Sagebrush, 19 2. The Exploitation Pageant, 37 3. Left-Hand Trail to Hell, 57 4. Texas Cattle and Cattlemen, 70 Part II The Land Acquired 5. Buy, Beg, Borrow, or Steal a Ranch, 89 6. John Sparks: Capital, Credit, and Courage, 101 7. White Winter: White Hills of Bones, 119 8. Water: The Finite Resource, 137 Part III The Land in Transition 9. Making Hay in the Great Basin, 155 10. From Dugouts to Cattle Empires, 180 11. Herefords in the Sagebrush, 194 12. Horses, Tame and Wild in the Sagebrush, 212 Part IV The Land Answers 13. The Passing of the Old Guard, 237 Epilogue,257 Notes, 271 Equivalency Name Table, 303 Index, 307 contents illustrations photographs Open range, 16–17 Cattle on playa, 86–87 Early haying, 152–153 John Sparks, 234–235 figures Figure 1. Boundary of the Great Basin, xiii Figure 2. Sagebrush communities distributed on alluvial fans, 26 ...