Drew Gomber
Drew is the author of Past Tense, Part I and Heroes and Villains of the Lincoln County War, both of which are collections of his newspaper column in the Ruidoso News. He has also authored A Primer to the Lincoln County War, a small volume designed to help the novice understand the complexities of the characters, the politics and the time line of the Lincoln County War and the story of its most famous participant, Billy the Kid.
Mickey's Take: Drew is, IMHO, the foremost authority on Lincoln County's history! Be sure to visit his website below of which I put together on his behalf ... and don't forget to listen to his compelling Radio Shows with his wife Elise on the Ruidoso River Museum's website.
Go to Drew Gomber's Website • Old West Radio Shows


Leon Metz
Metz has penned 17 books, most notably John Selman: Texas Gunfighter and a biography of Old West lawman Pat Garrett. Metz also hosts a weekly column in the El Paso Times and hosts a radio show, The Leon Metz Show on KTSM, which relates to Southwestern U.S. history. He can also be seen often on BBC television specials on the west.
Mickey's Take: Leon Metz has been a long-time friend of mine ... we date back to my younger years when I traveled with him to promote El Paso tourism for the CVB. He wrote the liner notes on my recording: "Historic Songs of El Paso" ... soon to be re-released on CD. We even traveled to Tokyo, Japan and did a spot on their national network ... being translated both in song and story!
Go to Leon Metz's Website

Frank Mangan
Mangan is a native El Pasoan, who worked for many years in advertising and public relations for the El Paso Natural Gas Company. A "Sunday painter" who is at home with the graphic arts, he not only wrote the text for his books but did the design work too. He and his wife, Judy, until recently ran Mangan Books, a company that specialized in books about El Paso. The company has now closed. The Mangans still make their home in El Paso ... Frank Mangan published and wrote the book: Ruidoso Country.
Mickey's Take: I've been collecting Frank's books since I can remember ... His books are always captivating both visually and through their well-written text ... "Ruidoso Country" is a must-have for anyone interested in learning more about Ruidoso and its history.
Bibliography of Frank Mangan

Eugene Manlove Rhodes
Mickey's Take:
I have a copy of Gene Rhodes: Cowboy his biography published in 1955 of which I read about 20 years ago ... his stories and his perspectives on New Mexico have stayed with me throughout the years ... and enhanced my vision of this beautiful state and its immense history. There's a small reference in this book to his applying to the Eagle Creek teaching position, in the 1880s before Eagle Creek was christened as "Alto":
During the spring and summer he would struggle to get the rude outlines of a functioning ranch set up and buy a few cattle on credit. Then, in the fall, when ranch work was at a minimum, he would get a job teaching school and do his chores on week ends. His college work enabled him to get a teaching job, and he applied for the post at Eagle Creek (Alto today).
Eugene Manlove Rhodes is one of my all-time favorite writers, along with C.L. Sonnichsen ... Rhodes really captured the spirit of our area ... from the San Andres Mountains to the Tularosa Basin ... his writings on Alto, New Mexico are filled with funny anecdotes ...
Read the Pioneer Story of Eugene Manlove Rhodes

C. L. Sonnichsen
Mickey's Take: Considered the Grass Roots Historian, Sonnichsen painted the landscape of our Southwest countryside from a down-home folksy point of view ... his "Tularosa The Last Frontier" is truly the tour de force of anything ever written on the basin past and present!
Tularosa - sun-scorched, sandblasted, merciless—the parched desert where everything, from cactus to cowman, carries a weapon of some sort, and the only creatures who sleep with both eyes closed are dead. Tularosa—the last frontier in the continental United States. C. L. Sonnichsen, an authority on the Southwest, writing from primary records and conversations with survivors of Tularosa's pioneer days, tells the stories of the great cattle ranchers pitted against daring rustlers, elite men against Apaches, desperados against law men. Here are Oliver Lee, Pat Garrett, and Bill McNew. And here is the feud between Col. A. J. Fountain and Albert Fall.

Henry James
Mickey's Take: Here's another amazing writer ... who really went out and lived his writing ... he didn't fall back on researching old tomes, he went out and lived the story as he wrote it! "The Curse of the San Andres" is an investigative report on the Noss family's mining claim to the Victoria Peak in the Hembrillo Basin. This was considered the largest cache in the history of mankind ... even exceeding all of the recovered Spanish Galleons to date. Imagine, right here in our surrounding San Andres mountain range! Doc Noss was on a hunting trip when he stumbled across a cave with an ancient rope ladder. He eventually made it to a large cavern that appeared to house endless gold bricks with Spanish artifacts strewn all about ... Some consider this to be the Seven Cities of Cibola ... others, the Lost Padre Mine of Father la Rue ... The story goes on: Doc Noss is murdered in Hatch by Charlie Ryan, an undercover government agent, before he could excavate his massive treasure find ... it wasn't long before the land that housed this cache was set aside for military maneuver ... and the Noss family found themselves in an impossible matrix of red tape not allowing them access to their rightful claim! Want to learn more, Read this book!

Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs by Lyn Kidder
The Sacramento Mountains are an oasis of cool pine forests, alpine meadows, and fast-flowing streams. For more than a century, the area has been a summer haven for people living in the surrounding desert. The town of "Ruidoso" (Spanish word meaning "Noisy River") named for the sound of water rushing over rocks as the Rio Ruidoso runs (and occasionally rampages) through the town. The town's first resident, Civil War veteran Paul Dowlin, built an adobe mill that harnessed the river's power. Word of the area's beauty soon spread. Traveling over primitive roads, first by horse and wagon and later by automobile, visitors escaped the summer heat in what became known as "The Playground of the Southwest". Some came for horse racing or the gambling and night life offered by the town's many bars; others came to hike, fish, and later ski on the slopes of Sierra Blanca (the mountain whose 12,000-foot peak provides a stunning backdrop for the town).
Mickey's Take: This is a book that I was honored to have contributed to with my ephemera collection of vintage postcards and photographs of the Ruidoso Area. This is a must-have book to complete everyone's library on Ruidoso!