Crooked Trails

In Short

Frederic Remington's Crooked Trails is a collection of frontier sketches and narrative vignettes capturing the brutal, transitional reality of the late nineteenth-century American West and North. Through accounts of Texas Rangers, Indian-fighting cavalrymen, wilderness canoeists, and early colonial fighters, the book details the grit required to survive on the margins of civilization. It has endured as a primary visual and textual record of a vanishing wilderness, written by an artist who observed its key figures before they disappeared entirely.

The Story

The narrative arc of Crooked Trails moves across both geographical space and historical time, binding disparate encounters into a portrait of the American wilderness. The book opens in the Southwest, where the author sits in the San Antonio Club listening to aging Texas Rangers like Colonel "Rip" Ford and "Big-foot" Wallace recount the savage battles of the 1830s. These men describe a ruthless era of territorial conquest fought against Mexicans and Comanches, characterized by hand-to-hand combat, Mexican prison marches, and survival under extreme desert conditions.

From these historical recollections, the narrative transitions into first-hand sporting and military expeditions across the Southwestern brush. The author details winter hunting trips near Eagle Pass, tracking blue quail through thorny, needle-filled cactus fields alongside military officers. This leads directly into accounts of active army operations on the frontier. In frozen landscapes, US Cavalry soldiers and scouts engage in fierce, close-quarters firefights with Cheyenne warriors, enduring extreme cold, heavy snow, and lethal exchanges of rifle fire along rocky ridges and entrenchments.

The book then shifts its timeline back to the early colonial frontier through an XVIII-century journal narrative. Here, a young trader's son and his ranger companions trek through the frozen wilderness around Lake Champlain. They endure harsh winter storms, navigate treacherous lake ice, encounter packs of wild bears, and engage in skirmishes against French soldiers and Native allies in dense forests.

In its final movements, the book travels northward into the Canadian wilderness and onto Southwestern cattle ranches. The author joins a grueling canoeing expedition through Canadian waterways, portaging heavy equipment alongside native guides and an urban attorney struggling under a tump-line. The journey ends on the open range, where vaqueros and young female riders herd and brand cattle amid dust, heat, and charging bulls. Across every era, the book concludes with the quiet realization that the wild, untamed frontier is rapidly giving way to settled civilization.

How It Unfolds

Voices of the Old Rangers In a San Antonio club, elderly veterans recount the brutal skirmishes of 1830s Texas. Colonel "Rip" Ford and "Big-foot" Wallace describe desperate fights against Comanches, surviving Mexican imprisonment, and the origin of the Texas Rangers.

Chasing Game in the Chaparral The author travels to Eagle Pass for a winter hunting trip in the dense cactus brush. Pushing through severe thorns and intense heat, the party pursues elusive blue quail and dodges wild coyotes across the vast Mexican borderlands.

Firefights in the Snow US Cavalry troopers maneuver across frozen hills and rocky ledges during a tense military operation. Sergeant Johnson engages in a deadly, close-range duel with the Cheyenne warrior White Antelope amid heavy gunfire and thick smoke.

Trial on the Colonial Frontier A young XVIII-century scout details a grueling winter expedition near Lake Champlain. His party survives freezing waters, wild bear encounters, and a forest ambush against French grenadiers and their Native allies.

Portaging the Northern Wilds A canoeing party journeys deep into the uncharted Canadian wilderness alongside Hudson Bay Company traders. Men strain under two-hundred-pound packs and negotiate dangerous river rapids to reach isolated trading posts.

The Last of the Range On a vast Southwestern cattle ranch, cowboys and skilled young women herd, brand, and control wild cattle. A young girl on horseback brilliantly heads off a charging bull, showcasing the rugged skill of open-range life.

The People

• Colonel "Rip" Ford: An aging, white-haired veteran of Captain Jack Hayes's Ranger company. He seeks to preserve the history of early Texas territorial fights, limited by his single-minded view of combat as a necessary trade. He ends his days reflecting quietly in San Antonio as his era vanishes.
• "Big-foot" Wallace: A giant six-foot-two frontier hunter and former Ranger who came to Texas seeking revenge for slain relatives. After surviving Mexican captivity, desert starvation, and Indian wars, he ends up outpaced by modern civilization, living out his old age in poverty.
• Sergeant Johnson: A brave Virginian serving in the military on the frozen plains. Driven by duty and tactical composure under fire, he faces constant deadly exposure along rocky ledges, ultimately proving his skill and courage by defeating his direct enemy in close combat.
• The Narrator: An observant urban traveler and hunter who desires authentic wilderness experiences. Though initially seeking comfort and complaining about early military wake-up calls, he learns to endure heavy portages and extreme conditions, gaining deep respect for the frontier's harsh demands.

In Its Own Voice

"We disposed ourselves quietly and almost reverentially, while we lighted cigars."

The author describes sitting down in San Antonio to hear an old Texas Ranger recount the wild territorial battles of his youth.

"There is an action about blue-quail shooting which is next to buffalo shooting--it's run, shoot, pick up your bird..."

This observation captures the exhaustion and fast pace of hunting through the dense, thorn-filled cactus brush of Southwest Texas.

"The axe and rifle, the paddle and pack being more to our hands in those rough days."

A colonial trader reflects on the practical skills required to survive on the XVIII-century American frontier where formal schooling was scarce.

What It's Really About

Crooked Trails is fundamentally about the violent transformation of the American landscape and the inevitable loss of the wild frontier. Remington examines how physical environment shapes human character, pitting individual toughness against an unyielding nature. Beneath the adventure lies a quiet mournfulness for a passing era; the very civilization these fighters, scouts, and traders helped establish leaves them obsolete. The book questions whether modern society can produce the same raw endurance, self-reliance, and unvarnished courage that defined the men and women who carved out the edge of the wilderness.

Why Read It Today

Crooked Trails offers readers an unvarnished, firsthand look at the physical reality of frontier life before it was romanticized by modern media. Remington's prose is direct, sensory, and deeply visual, capturing the sting of cactus spines, the weight of a two-hundred-pound canvas pack, and the freezing air of a winter firefight.

Readers must navigate periodic difficulties, including dated period attitudes, harsh racial slurs common to the late nineteenth century, and regional dialects that reflect the prejudices of the era. The structure is episodic rather than a single continuous novel, shifting between historical memoirs, hunting trips, and colonial journals.

Yet for those interested in authentic Western history, the book remains a compelling experience. It places you directly inside the dust, cold, and quiet vastness of an untamed continent, leaving you with an enduring appreciation for the sheer physical grit required to survive its trails.