" ... My primary purpose in telling the region's story is to preserve as many of the old-timers' stories as possible, and to corral them between the covers of one book. Some of the best-loved legends and yarns have more than one version and have been told before in one way or another by Alice Jack Shipman, Barry Scobee, Carl Raht, J. Frank Dobie, Cas Edwards, and others. With their permission, I have retold some of the stories and have added many talks which never before have been published ... Most of the cattlemen, prospectors, miners, outlaws, local police officers, and Texas Rangers who made up the Big Bend's population back in the 1880s have gone on to the Big Bend up Yonder ... Most of those stories I tell here, I knew personally and I recorded their accounts as we talked in their homes, sitting in living rooms, at well-filled dining tables, on back steps, or on front porches ..."--The author's preface.