The Cowboy Way

The editor of Big Sky magazine offers an enthralling and intensely personal account of a year-long sojourn at a Montana ranch and the reality of cowboy life.

In February of his forty-fourth year, journalist David McCumber signed on as a hand on rancher Bill Galt's expansive Birch Creek spread in Montana. The Cowboy Way is an enthralling and intensely personal account of his year spent in open country--a book that expertly weaves together past and present into a vibrant and colorful tapestry of a vanishing way of life. At once a celebration of a breathtaking land both dangerous and nourishing, and a clear-eyed appreciation of the men--and women--who work it, David McCumber's remarkable story forever alters our long-held perceptions of the Roy Rogers cowboy with real-life experiences and hard economic truths.

In February of his forty-fourth year, journalist David McCumber signed on as a hand on rancher Bill Galt's expansive Birch Creek spread in Montana. The Cowboy Way is an enthralling and intensely personal account of his year spent in open country--a book that expertly weaves together past and present into a vibrant and colorful tapestry of a vanishing way of life. At once a celebration of a breathtaking land both dangerous and nourishing, and a clear-eyed appreciation of the men--and women--who work it, David McCumber's remarkable story forever alters our long-held perceptions of the Roy Rogers cowboy with real-life experiences and hard economic truths.