Mustangs and Sagebrush

Two unforgettable characters stand out in my mind from my experiences in Tucumcari, N.M. when I worked as sports editor of the Tucumcari Daily News -- Charlie Carter, an aspiring boxer, and Jack Schaeffer, author of 'Shane,' 'The Mustangs' and numerous other books about the Old West.

First there was Charlie. He was a slim, bespectacled guy, just out of high school who was a year younger than me. He wanted to be a prize fighter and he spent his afternoons and weekends working out on punching bags at an old gym near the school.

Charlie and I spent a lot of time together on weekends hunting jackrabbits. We would drive to a ranch and get permission from the rancher to take our .22 rifles into the open range country near the ranch house. The ranchers were generally glad to see us. Six jackrabbits could eat as much grass daily as one cow, and the grass was in short supply in the sagebrush country of eastern New Mexico.

We would park the car, strip off our shirts and head off into the prairie, alert for jackrabbits, rattlesnakes and an occasional coyote. The long-eared jacks were fun to hunt. They were big, tough and would run for miles before stopping next to a creosote bush or Joshua tree. Some days we would kill up to a dozen of them and bring them back to the ranch house to give to the owner so he could feed them to his dogs.

Charlie never became a boxer. He ended up marrying his childhood sweetheart, Doris Demarest, and went to work for the New Mexico Highway Department, where he labored until he retired. He and I stayed friends and we played a lot of poker at the Inn of the Mountain Gods near Ruidoso, N.M. Charlie wasn't really much of a poker player, but he enjoyed a beer and he would accompany me into the scenic mountains for an evening of poker, drinking and dancing to a live band.

The other unforgettable character was Jack Schaeffer, a former high school teacher and author from Ohio. Schaeffer wrote a best-selling novel called 'Shane,' about a retired gunfighter who was caught up in a range war. The book made Schaeffer a lot of money and was made into a movie starring Alan Ladd and Jack Palance.

I was a good friend of Herman 'Corney' Moncus, who owned the Elkhorn Drug Store and Museum in Tucuncari. Corney had published a non-fiction book about the Spanish Conquistadores who had populated New Mexico in the early days. An authority on the Old West, he befriended Schaeffer when he came to Tucumcari to do research on one of his books. He called me up one day and asked me if I cared to meet the author. I was thrilled at the idea.

''Shane' was a great movie,' I said. Moncus invited me to his drug store for lunch the following day.

Schaeffer was a gentleman who had bought a ranch near Santa Fe. After a leisurely lunch, during which we drank a lot of Corney's famous .05 cent Folgers coffee, he invited me to visit him and his family at the ranch. I had told him I was a poker player and he said there was a good game at a casino just outside Albuquerque.

'My kids can take you horseback riding,' he said. 'You can explore the coyote caves near the ranch. You won't be bored. Then if you'd like we can go to the Sandia Casino and play some poker.'

That was how I ended up spending a weekend at Schaeffer's ranch.

In those days I was an aspiring writer who wanted to write stories and books. I figured Schaeffer would make an excellent teacher (which he was). On Saturday morning, I climbed into my little red and white Ford and made the three-hour drive to Schaeffer's ranch.

The Land of Enchantment is a beautiful state and the road to the ranch was scenic. I passed low-slung mesas and raced past antelope and deer crouched next to barb wire fences. The clear air and turquoise sky stretched on endlessly. I followed Schaeffer's instructions and made it to the ranch in time for lunch.

He introduced me to his wife and kids and showed me his den where he did his writing. I was in awe.

'When I wrote 'Shane', I had never been west of Cleveland, Ohio,' he said grinning.

After his lunch, his kids saddled up the horses and we went on a ride to the coyote caves. We didn't see a coyote, but we saw some of their leavings. On the way back to the ranch, the kids took off galloping and left me behind. I was on a good horse and the ride was pleasant.

Suddenly I heard hoofbeats behind me. I turned and saw a herd of wild horses racing out of the sagebrush. They were coming directly toward me. I kicked my horse into a gallop.

The ranch was about a mile ahead. I leaned low over the saddle and stayed ahead of the wild horses. As they approached the corral, they came to a halt, pawing the ground and whinnying. Schaeffer came up to the corral and smiled.

'They want to lure your horse into the herd,' he said. 'It happens all the time.'

Schaeffer did not accompany me to the casino that night. He was working on a deadline for one of his books. But he gave me instructions on how to get to the casino and told me he would have a bed available for me when I was through playing.

I drove to Albuquerque and played until midnight. After winning about $150, I drove beneath a big New Mexico moon back to Schaeffer's ranch and turned into my bed for a sweet sleep in the land of mustangs and sagebrush.