Lyle Carnal

Son of the San Juans: Growing Up Cowboy in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado Lyle Carnal

Publisher Marketing: This book will give you an insider's look into a way of life in our country that has vanished forever-the cowboy life the author lived in Southwestern Colorado starting in the early 1900's. Lyle shares his stories of a simpler and hardier life with humor and pathos. Love of life and wry observation of human nature are the dominant themes of this book. Lyle's story begins at a time in our country's history when 'horse power' had a literal meaning in day to day life, when traveling 25 to 30 miles in a day was a considerable achievement, when the capricious weather of the Southwestern Colorado mountains could inflict tragedy and trauma on any innocent soul just trying to make a living. Whether snowed in high in the mountains with nothing in his grub box but a can of stewed tomatoes, or chasing after a wily steer at breakneck speed on horseback through a rocky and thorny desert landscape, Lyle reflects on the realities of a cowboy's life of his generation. His stories include his signing up for the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, seeing action in the South Pacific, traveling the world, and ending up again in his beloved San Juan mountains after the war. His story continues into later years, in which he still rode horseback and trained horses well into his eighties. Share the life journey of a remarkable man. Saddle your own horse, come along for the ride, and "cowboy up!."