Ghost Riders in the Sky: The Life of Stan Jones, the Singing Ranger

by Michael Ward

Overview

Winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards for Arizona Biography!In Death Valley National Monument, 1947, a handsome young park ranger idly plucks his guitar, writes a cowboy song, and strikes gold. This is the true story of Stan Jones, now told in full for the first time. His great song "Ghost Riders in the Sky," continues to have a life of its own, performed all around the world in ever-changing musical modes, still casting an eerie spell over listeners today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933855998
Publisher:	Rio Nuevo Publishers
Publication date:	09/01/2014
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

After living and working in Death Valley for both the Fred Harvey Company and the National Park Service from 1977 through 1991, Michael K. Ward decided it was time for a move to Tucson to cool off a bit. He has worked as a field technician at Saguaro National Park since 1992.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ranger Doug v

Prologue vii

Chapter 1 Douglas, Arizona 1

Chapter 2 Young Riders 11

Chapter 3 In the Navy 17

Chapter 4 Cowboy, Change Your Ways 25

Chapter 5 Mount Rainier 33

Chapter 6 A Hot, Miserable, Godforsaken Hole 41

Chapter 7 No Water in That Cactus 55

Chapter 8 Nature Boy 63

Chapter 9 All the Stars of Death Valley 71

Chapter 10 We Hope He Makes a Million Dollars 83

Chapter 11 Don't Write Anything about Cactus! 93

Chapter 12 Silver Screen Songwriter 105

Chapter 13 I'm No Actor 115

Chapter 14 Creakin' Leather 125

Chapter 15 Song of the Trail 135

Chapter 16 Roll Along 143

Chapter 17 You Never Really Ever Died 153

Chapter 18 Ghost Riders in the Sky 163

Epilogue 173

Ghost Riders in the Sky Lyrics 175

Acknowledgments 177

Notes 181

Suggested Reading 189

Index 194