Henry Chappell

Works

Novels

Silent We Stood

On July 8, 1860, Dallas, Texas burned. Three slaves were accused of arson and hanged without a trial. Today, most historians attribute the fire to carelessness. Texas was the darkest corner of the Old South, too remote and violent for even the bravest abolitionists. Yet North Texas newspapers commonly reported runaway slaves, and travelers in South Texas wrote of fugitives heading to Mexico. Perhaps a few prominent people were all too happy to call the fire an accident.

Blood Kin

Alongside legendary ranger captain Noah Smithwick, young Isaac Webb emerges from the Texas Revolution only to be pressed into service again, this time as the embattled new Republic's peace emissary to the Comanches. His sudden and complete immersion into the culture he's known only though its depredations is both terrifying and world-altering. A haunting novel of early Texas.

The Callings

Bison herds are dwindling on the Kansas prairie. Logan Fletcher, a young faith healer from Kentucky, works on a buffalo hunting crew. Cuts Something, an aging Comanche War chief, returns to his old home on the Pease River to revive his badger medicine. Their final clash tests the depths of Cuts Something's resolve and compels Logan to confront the brutality of the American frontier.

Non-Fiction Books

Horses to Ride, Cattle to Cut: The San Antonio Viejo Ranch of Texas

Alternatively stark and lush, desolate and teeming with life, the San Antonio Viejo is a landscape like no other. From the Rancho Viejo pastures along the Old San Antonio Road to the stone runis and humble outbuildings of Casa Verde and La Perla to the otherworkdly dunes of coastal El Sauz, Meinzer's lens captures the breathtaking beauty of a hiddn jewel, his photographs matched elegantly by Chappell's prose.

Wagonhound: The Spirit of Wyoming

Wagonhound Land and Livestock is first and foremost a working cattle operation. On its 200,000 acres, mostly in the foothills of the Laramie Mountain Range, in southeastern Wyoming, cowboys still earn their living on horseback, working cattle in much the same manner as their ancestors did more than a century ago. In this defining study, Wyman Meinzer and Henry Chappell capture the essence of the Wagonhound Way – and the Spirit of Wyoming.

Under One Fence: The Waggoner Ranch Legacy

Now you hear churning hooves and the shouts of the cowboys as the lead horse turns toward the pens. Dust mixes with the dissipating fog as they sun clears the horizon ... Welcome to the Waggoner Ranch!

Working Dogs of Texas

The human-canine bond extends back to last Ice Age when hunting peoples depended on their dogs for survival in unimaginably harsh environments. Henry Chappll and Wyman Meinzer explore this ancient bond and the deep, close connections that persist today. Hunters, herders, enforcers, rescue dogs and caretakers are all profiled in photos and and prose.

6666: Portrait of a Texas Ranch

The Four Sixes is not a relic, showpiece, or preserve. It's a working cattle ranch, some 290,000 acres of West Texas prairie carefully used. Here, men still earn their livelihoods on horseback, not out of blind tradition, but out of necessity. Spurs, broad-brimmed hats, and scuffed and patched boots are not fashion statements but essentials - as are loyalty, toughness, and resourcefulness.

At Home on the Range with a Texas Hunter

Bobwhites in the Texas Panhandle, prairie grouse in the Flint Hills of Kansas, Gambel's quail in New Mexico's arroyos, blue quail on the staked plains, and doves and Mearns quail in Arizona. In these lyrical essays, Henry Chappell examines the bonds that connect hunter, hunting dog, land and prey.

Selected Articles