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February 22, 2008
From the Saddle to the City Streets
Follow the life of a Texas Ranger from his beginnings, riding the range on the Rio Grande, to fighting urban crime in Dallas.
Written by Barbara Brannon
This book is the culmination of four years of research of Hill's personal papers and archival collections from across the state.
When Sharon Spinks inherited a cabinet full of case files from her husband's grandfather, the late Texas Ranger Arthur Hill, she began a five-year quest to document the 20th-century ranger's experience in the Big Bend region.
Spinks recognized the rare opportunity to chronicle the career and experiences of a lawman whom she had known in person. The result is the book “Law on the Last Frontier: Texas Ranger Arthur Hill,” published by Texas Tech University Press.
“When I was a college student, my husband and I frequently visited Ranger Hill in his Alpine home,” said Spinks. “We drove around the area ‘making the loop,’ as Arthur called it, from Alpine to Lajitas, through Big Bend National Park and back to Marathon; or out to Fort Davis and down to Presidio along the river. Wherever we traveled, Arthur had a story of a crime scene, a horseback pursuit, a cattle roundup or of the wonderful friends and neighbors who lived in the region.”
In a career forged in the saddle on scout duty along the Rio Grande, Hill witnessed dramatic changes in his working life as a Texas Ranger from 1947 to 1974. Whether inspecting brands, deterring smugglers of everything from cattle to candle wax, or giving horseback pursuit across unforgiving terrain – often into Mexico – Hill found himself immersed in a world that straddled centuries as well as cultures.
“I hope to give the reader the chance to ride through the Big Bend with Hill,” said Spinks, “and hear of the Texas that was and the Texas that emerged on his watch.”
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Born in San Antonio, S.E. (Sharon) Spinks has worked in agricultural journalism and has managed a 10,000-acre commercial cow-calf ranch in West Texas. She has also been a secondary science teacher and coordinator of the Gifted and Talented Program in a small West Texas school district.
Currently, Spinks devotes her time to researching and writing Texas and regional history. She lives with her husband and two sons in New Braunfels.