Hotter 'n Pecos

These collected tales—some taller than others—offer revealing glimpses into how and why West Texans are different. Rugged enough to make the harshest of environments their own, this species thrives in hundred-degree-plus heat and near-zero humidity.

Folks like the crop duster who nearly sets his plane down in the bed of a pickup, the “boll weevil” whose naiveté is tested in the oil patch, and Frank the “Goofy Roofer,” who enters a bullfight with nothing more than a denim jacket and a bottle of beer, are far from rare.

All these yarns contain a grain of truth, and some of them actually happened just as related. Most of them have a humorous bent; some are reasonably serious; a few are totally outrageous. But all of them illustrate the character of this distinctive region of the Lone Star State.

Weaver’s lively anecdotes prove several truths about Texas west of the hundredth meridian: you may learn how not to haul hogs, ride in rodeos, conduct bullfights, or drill oil wells—and you may well meet petroleum promoters, coon hunters, chuck-wagon cooks, cotton farmers, and even college professors—but you won’t encounter an uninteresting character where things get hotter than Pecos.

Bobby D. Weaver, whose career has ranged from the oilfields of Texas to the halls of academe, holds degrees from Texas Tech University and Texas A&I University. A former curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and assistant director of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, he is the author of histories of several West Texas institutions and Oil Field Trash: Life and Labor in the Texas Oilfields, 1901–1960.