Welcome to Western Writers of America’s first anthology for young readers. In this collection of true tales of the West, we leave textbook history in the rearview mirror and take you on a tour of twenty seldom-told dramas, the kind you might stumble across only if you leave the main road to wander the detours and byways of the American story. Here you’ll meet extraordinary characters, from a young buffalo hunter of prehistoric times to riders for the Pony Express, the first African American female stagecoach driver, and the Navajo code talkers of World War II. Did you know that in 1821, a Plains Indian girl trekked 1,400 miles to visit Washington, DC? Or that two brave children, eight and ten years old, took part in the Texas Revolution? Tales in this anthology range wide in time, topic, and mood, yet all celebrate a spirit that is uniquely Western.

Founded in 1953, Western Writers of America is the nation’s oldest and most distinguished organization of professionals writing about the early frontier and the American West, its past and present. Now in our sixty-eighth year, our more than seven hundred members write fiction and nonfiction, songs, poetry, short stories, plays for stage and screen, and more. The contributors to this anthology, WWA members all, include bestselling authors and winners of numerous prestigious literary awards.

With Why Cows Need Cowboys, we invite you to journey westward with us, and we hope you enjoy the ride.

Matthew P. Mayo