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High, Wide and Lonesome: Growing Up on the Colorado Frontier
In this memoir of a lost America, Hal Borland tells the story of his family’s migration to eastern Colorado as homesteaders at the turn of the twentieth century. On an unsettled and unwelcoming prairie landscape, the Borlands build a house, plant crops, and eke out a meager existence. While life is difficult—and self-reliance is necessary with no neighbors for miles—the experience brings the family close and binds them closer to the terrible and beautiful natural patterns that govern their lives. Borland would grow up to study journalism and become an acclaimed nature writer, and it was these childhood years on the prairie that shaped the author’s heart and mind.
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1956
290 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
About the author
Hal Borland
57 books77 followersHarold Glen Borland was a nature journalist. During World War II he wrote radio programs for the government and served as special magazine correspondent. He had written several documentary movies, two volumes of poetry, a volume of essays, has collaborated on a play, and has contributed many non-fiction articles, short stories and novelettes to leading magazines here and abroad.
Mr. Borland was graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He also attended the University of Colorado and received a Litt.D. from there in 1944.
Mr. Borland was graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He also attended the University of Colorado and received a Litt.D. from there in 1944.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
March 19, 2021
Written in 1959, this author is an amazing storyteller. It is a memoir, a coming of age story, an era in life which transitions between the open wild, wild west frontier to the influx of homesteaders and their marked off property lines of barbed wire fencing.
In 1910, Hal was 10 years old when his father decided he wanted to take up a homestead on 320 acres of government owned grassland, considered wasteland, or "unsalable desert", in northeastern Colorado, 30 miles south of the Platte valley town of Brush in Morgan County, and 15 miles to the closest village of Gary, which just had a Post Office and a small grocer carrying a few basic items. It was land given as a railroad promotion in 1910 to depression-era farmers of 1907 who believed they could farm the land for five years and claim ownership without starving to death. Hal's father accepted the challenge, and after the five years, the land was theirs.
He helped his dad build their first house ever...just a 14 by 20 foot long rectangle, and dig a well for water. Then, they sent for his mother back home in Nebraska to begin their life on the new Colorado frontier...and so the adventure begins.
In 1910, Hal was 10 years old when his father decided he wanted to take up a homestead on 320 acres of government owned grassland, considered wasteland, or "unsalable desert", in northeastern Colorado, 30 miles south of the Platte valley town of Brush in Morgan County, and 15 miles to the closest village of Gary, which just had a Post Office and a small grocer carrying a few basic items. It was land given as a railroad promotion in 1910 to depression-era farmers of 1907 who believed they could farm the land for five years and claim ownership without starving to death. Hal's father accepted the challenge, and after the five years, the land was theirs.
He helped his dad build their first house ever...just a 14 by 20 foot long rectangle, and dig a well for water. Then, they sent for his mother back home in Nebraska to begin their life on the new Colorado frontier...and so the adventure begins.
March 8, 2024
Hal Borland. That's a name I need to remember. He wove a beautiful tale with gently vivid descriptions, interesting characters, and a well-paced, realistic story. He invites the reader to explore the natural world through his own experiences. The setting he describes no longer exists ... the prairie of Eastern Colorado has been criss-crossed with roads and homesteaders, ranchers and plows.
He put in words some of my own thinking. For example:
p 27: Those who live with a far horizon in their boyhood are never again bound to a narrow view of life.
My childhood is anchored in the high mountains. When I lived in Massachusetts, the woods were inviting and beautiful, but I missed the openings, the meadows, the slopes, and the distant mountain views.
And in relatively few words, he shows us how to build a sod house and dig a well. I'd always wondered how the homesteaders in the middle of nowhere managed to put down their wells.
pp 32-33
So we had a house. It had no door and no window sash, but it was a house, our house.
Then we dug the well. Father chose the site, ...
(This is practical information. You never need to know when you're going to have to dig a well.)
He was a careful observer, partly because he didn't have distractions. How many of today's kids would appreciate an experience such as he describes on p 127:
In the evenings I often went up the draw to a place where the giant evening primroses opened big white and pink and lavender flowers at sundown. The flowers were broad as my hand and very fragrant. Just at dusk the big hawk moths came to hover over them and feed, and I thought they were hummingbirds until I trapped one under my hat. Then I saw the moth wings, instead of feathers, and the strange coiled tongue under its snout which the moth could thrust out like a long beak and use it to suck the nectar from the primroses.
I think he's an easy match with Willa Cather, but his writing flows more easily and I'm left with more vivid impressions.
This is a must read for anyone who appreciates the natural world.
He put in words some of my own thinking. For example:
p 27: Those who live with a far horizon in their boyhood are never again bound to a narrow view of life.
My childhood is anchored in the high mountains. When I lived in Massachusetts, the woods were inviting and beautiful, but I missed the openings, the meadows, the slopes, and the distant mountain views.
And in relatively few words, he shows us how to build a sod house and dig a well. I'd always wondered how the homesteaders in the middle of nowhere managed to put down their wells.
pp 32-33
So we had a house. It had no door and no window sash, but it was a house, our house.
Then we dug the well. Father chose the site, ...
(This is practical information. You never need to know when you're going to have to dig a well.)
He was a careful observer, partly because he didn't have distractions. How many of today's kids would appreciate an experience such as he describes on p 127:
In the evenings I often went up the draw to a place where the giant evening primroses opened big white and pink and lavender flowers at sundown. The flowers were broad as my hand and very fragrant. Just at dusk the big hawk moths came to hover over them and feed, and I thought they were hummingbirds until I trapped one under my hat. Then I saw the moth wings, instead of feathers, and the strange coiled tongue under its snout which the moth could thrust out like a long beak and use it to suck the nectar from the primroses.
I think he's an easy match with Willa Cather, but his writing flows more easily and I'm left with more vivid impressions.
This is a must read for anyone who appreciates the natural world.
September 6, 2016
I'm a big fan of Ralph Moody's Little Britches series - he's just a wonderful allegorical writer and it's a Colorado story, after all. So, I was excited when a Colorado rancher's daughter, here at Goodreads, turned me on to Hal Borland's High, Wide and Lonesome. Unlike Moody's work, Borland's contains a bare minimum of allegory, though what it has is resonant. It's really just a straight-forward, occasionally beautiful, narrative of a young man's life as he and his parents homestead a Colorado plains farm at the start of the 20th century (1910).
While Borland does occasionally wax philosophic, the book really stands on its own as narrative and, though it may not hold much interest for those who aren't Coloradans or, at the least, afficianados of the Westward Movement, High, Wide and Lonesome is an often lyrical, richly detailed look at Colorado homestead life and the end of the open range. A quick, compelling read, I'd highly recommend it to those with an interest in the subject.
On a personal note: Borland's account is set near the ranch homesteaded by my great-grandparents around the same time and I'd never hoped to find such a detailed accounting of their hardships. As with other books of the genre, High, Wide and Lonesome has strengthened my understanding of the trials they endured and deepened my gratitude for their sacrifices as well as those of the cousin who has faithfully shepherded the ranch to its centenary.
While Borland does occasionally wax philosophic, the book really stands on its own as narrative and, though it may not hold much interest for those who aren't Coloradans or, at the least, afficianados of the Westward Movement, High, Wide and Lonesome is an often lyrical, richly detailed look at Colorado homestead life and the end of the open range. A quick, compelling read, I'd highly recommend it to those with an interest in the subject.
On a personal note: Borland's account is set near the ranch homesteaded by my great-grandparents around the same time and I'd never hoped to find such a detailed accounting of their hardships. As with other books of the genre, High, Wide and Lonesome has strengthened my understanding of the trials they endured and deepened my gratitude for their sacrifices as well as those of the cousin who has faithfully shepherded the ranch to its centenary.
June 18, 2025
Settlers
This book was a real treat, at first I did not think I would like the book, my what a surprise, I litterly could not put it down, it was a look through a boys eyes, I admired his mother for her love and persistent to handle any crisis. His dad like true dads were back then, he taughlove and kindness taught skills that lasted the boy’s life.thank you for writing the book, I enjoyed myself very much.
This book was a real treat, at first I did not think I would like the book, my what a surprise, I litterly could not put it down, it was a look through a boys eyes, I admired his mother for her love and persistent to handle any crisis. His dad like true dads were back then, he taughlove and kindness taught skills that lasted the boy’s life.thank you for writing the book, I enjoyed myself very much.
June 6, 2020
I read a review which said Hal Borland had a way with words. That’s like saying Rembrandt had a way with a paintbrush. Borland is a master storyteller and this memoir is unputdownable. His descriptions of the prairie coming to life in the springtime, the cruel and deadly beauty of A Colorado blizzard, and the grit and determination of his homesteader mother will stay with me for a long long time.
I was sorry to finish this book.
I was sorry to finish this book.
June 8, 2015
This is not the edition that I read, but this first edition is not listed. I had to request this book through an interlibrary loan. This particular issue was copyright 1956,an original, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 56-10812. I had become interested in the author because he wrote the novel that eventually became the movie Jeremiah Johnson.
It is a memoir about the author's early days from about age 9 through 12 when his family moved in the early 1900's to farm a homestead on the plains of eastern Colorado. It is Little House 2.0. The winters are grueling and provisioning food and heat are more than difficult -- truly life and death situations. It is about overcoming, and it is about learning about life. "The thoughts of boyhood are at once so simple and so complex, and the feelings can be so deep, so immediate. He hasn't yet calloused himself with adulthood. The world is at once close about him and remote as the stars; it is friendly and intimate, and hopelessly baffling. He hasn't yet made his compromises with it." After meeting deprivation head-on, the author realizes how much he has absorbed of life knowledge. "...somehow, standing in the warm Spring sunlight on the high plains, I comprehended the matter of eons and ages. Without knowing geology, I sensed geologic time. I touched the beat of the big rhythm, the coming and going of oceans and the rise and fall of mountains... Time was indeed a strange thing. The time of the ant, the time of the tumble bug, the time of the prairie dog, and the time of a boy."
Here is some additional information about the author if someone wants to add it to the information on his Goodreads page. I am quoting from the original book jacket about Hal Borland: "During World War II he wrote radio programs for the government and served as special magazine correspondent. He has written several documentary movies, two volumes of poetry, a volume of essays, has collaborated on a play, and has contributed many non-fiction articles, short stories and novelettes to leading magazines here and abroad. Mr. Borland was graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He also attended the University of Colorado and received a Litt.D. from there in 1944."
It is a memoir about the author's early days from about age 9 through 12 when his family moved in the early 1900's to farm a homestead on the plains of eastern Colorado. It is Little House 2.0. The winters are grueling and provisioning food and heat are more than difficult -- truly life and death situations. It is about overcoming, and it is about learning about life. "The thoughts of boyhood are at once so simple and so complex, and the feelings can be so deep, so immediate. He hasn't yet calloused himself with adulthood. The world is at once close about him and remote as the stars; it is friendly and intimate, and hopelessly baffling. He hasn't yet made his compromises with it." After meeting deprivation head-on, the author realizes how much he has absorbed of life knowledge. "...somehow, standing in the warm Spring sunlight on the high plains, I comprehended the matter of eons and ages. Without knowing geology, I sensed geologic time. I touched the beat of the big rhythm, the coming and going of oceans and the rise and fall of mountains... Time was indeed a strange thing. The time of the ant, the time of the tumble bug, the time of the prairie dog, and the time of a boy."
Here is some additional information about the author if someone wants to add it to the information on his Goodreads page. I am quoting from the original book jacket about Hal Borland: "During World War II he wrote radio programs for the government and served as special magazine correspondent. He has written several documentary movies, two volumes of poetry, a volume of essays, has collaborated on a play, and has contributed many non-fiction articles, short stories and novelettes to leading magazines here and abroad. Mr. Borland was graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. He also attended the University of Colorado and received a Litt.D. from there in 1944."
September 27, 2012
All I can say is why did I wait until 2012 to read this! This book was written in 1956 and chronicles the experiences of a family homesteading on the eastern plains of Colorado. It is part novel part factual account of the challenges of the time. Just incredible.
December 2, 2012
What a nice story about homesteading in the early 1900s. Set much later than most frontier stories. Descriptions of the land,sky, weather, animals and people made you really see what to was like for that family.
December 27, 2012
A fascinating, true insight into the drudgery, hardship and joys of homesteaders in 1900. The detail was fantastic, especially if you like the idea of living in a log cabin!
January 9, 2013
Hal Borland's "High Wide and Lonesome " is a soulfully written book that reads like a poem. So honest it hurts. Simplicity that is reverent and beautiful. I must read all his other books.
August 11, 2019
I think any Colorado Native would enjoy this book, especially since I’ve lived in Eastern Colorado. A cool look back in time!
October 23, 2023
I read this aloud to my husband while we made two trips to Colorado from our CA home this year. If you liked Ralph Moody books, you’ll probably enjoy this one. This was an Interesting memoir about homesteading on the plains—the hardships and the joys from a boy’s perspective. We are ready to read another of Mr Borland’s books. This was an engaging story to read aloud—his writing style lends to it and the reader feels like the story teller not just a reader. Caution: there were two chapters that covered graphic abuse of humans and animals. I wished we’d skipped them.
July 16, 2020
By the accident of the popular trails west going north and south and the placement of the Rocky Mountains, eastern Colorado remained unsettled until the early 20th century. Thus the author of this book, born in 1900, lived a life on the frontier almost identical to his own great-grandfather! As a boy of 10, he helped his father stake out and build the family's home on claimed land and lived through blizzards, failed crops, and deadly illnesses. Originally published in the 1950s, this account is a classic American story of tenacious people who gave up the safe and familiar to gain independence and a different way of life. Suitable for adults and older children, with vivid descriptions of life on the high plains.
July 17, 2020
It's been a long time since I read any Hal Borland books, and I had forgotten what a beautiful, beautiful writer he was. This is the story of three years of his life, age 10 to 13, when he and his parents - no siblings - proved up a homestead on the plains of northeast Colorado. The three of them built a sod house, a barn, fences, and planted and harvested corn, beans, and hay. There were plenty of tribulations: blizzards, obstreperous neighbors, drought, illness, and cattlemen/sheepherders range wars. It was incredibly hard work, and Borland loved every moment of it.
December 1, 2012
Beautifully written memoir of the years Hal Borland and his family spent on the Colorado Frontier when his father decided he wanted to try homesteading in 1910. Hal worked with his father to build a house and dig a well, and then his mother joined them. Life is not easy over the next 3 years, having to deal with the weather, livestock losses, and health problems. Hal grows up doing chores around the farm but enjoys the homesteading life as well.
I really enjoyed this book, and I did not realize before I read this how "wild" some parts of the "Wild West" actually were even at the turn of the century. There were still a lot of risks living out on the Plains then.
This is a book I will remember forever. One moment that really stood out for me was when Hal and his father are heading to the homestead with the load of lumber to build the house. On the way there, they meet one of the neighbors for the first time; they introduce themselves to each other, then the neighbor tells Hal's father that he is leaving to spend a week in town, and hands over his house key to the Borlands and tells them to go ahead and use his house for a place to sleep at night until they get the house up. That just amazed me, it's rare to find that level of trust between strangers today, (sadly, for good reason).
I really enjoyed this book, and I did not realize before I read this how "wild" some parts of the "Wild West" actually were even at the turn of the century. There were still a lot of risks living out on the Plains then.
This is a book I will remember forever. One moment that really stood out for me was when Hal and his father are heading to the homestead with the load of lumber to build the house. On the way there, they meet one of the neighbors for the first time; they introduce themselves to each other, then the neighbor tells Hal's father that he is leaving to spend a week in town, and hands over his house key to the Borlands and tells them to go ahead and use his house for a place to sleep at night until they get the house up. That just amazed me, it's rare to find that level of trust between strangers today, (sadly, for good reason).
April 25, 2018
The TV series “Star Trek” told us the final frontier is space, but in the early 1900’s it was Colorado. “High, Wide and Lonesome: Growing Up on the Colorado Frontier” is an autobiographical tale looking back on Hal Borland’s life as his family moved from Nebraska to eastern Colorado and staked a homestead claim. If they could manage to live on it 3 years, the 320 acres of land would be theirs for “free”. Although they didn’t have to buy the land, the adventure required a major financial investment to purchase all the farming tools (e.g., plow, harnesses, horses, etc.) plus the “sweat equity” to build a house and barn, plant and harvest crops, milk the cows, etc. When you consider these costs, the land was quite expensive!
The author does a great job of describing the beauty of the plains to include a variety of flowers, wildlife, sunsets, and even blizzards. He also shares the incredible hardships they faced at times and the old-fashioned values that made this great country – things like paying off your debts, integrity, kindness, endurance, etc.
The author does a great job of describing the beauty of the plains to include a variety of flowers, wildlife, sunsets, and even blizzards. He also shares the incredible hardships they faced at times and the old-fashioned values that made this great country – things like paying off your debts, integrity, kindness, endurance, etc.
June 25, 2013
Hal Borland's account of life in northeastern Colorado in the early 1900s was well written, entertaining, and history at its best..up, close and personal. fascinating stories of people, nature, life on a homestead, all the hardships interlaced with some of the sweet rewards. Though it isn't specifically about the area of Colorado we are currently travelling through, it still offers insight, depth and grounding for our wanderings. also, personally speaking, it shed light on the term "ioway" vs. "iowa", the pronunciation my 92 year old mother often uses for that state which I found used in these pages as well. lots of old language in this e-reader which sometimes the dictionary couldn't define! Hal Borland as nature writer has long been a favorite of mine and in this memoir he didn't disappoint.
March 18, 2021
I loved this book. The prose is captivating. And the subject is perfect after reading Centennial a few months ago.
A couple of quotes I liked:
A person who grew up in timbered country just can't get used to seeing winter come without having a big woodpile beside the house.
And I came to know that a frontier is never a place; it is a time and a way of life. I came to know that frontiers pass, but they endure in their people.
A couple of quotes I liked:
A person who grew up in timbered country just can't get used to seeing winter come without having a big woodpile beside the house.
And I came to know that a frontier is never a place; it is a time and a way of life. I came to know that frontiers pass, but they endure in their people.
October 9, 2020
I didn't get very far through this book. I didn't like the style of writing. The author likes to explain every, single, little detail. Every piece of clothing someone is wearing - every color that is on the bird, the sound the bird makes - every time it makes it. I just wanted to get into the story, but I couldn’t get beyond this type of writing to get far enough into the book.
February 22, 2018
Cannot say enough about this book. Excellent read about people moving West.
December 31, 2018
Made you feel the place and time.
March 6, 2021
This was good . . . It's hard because the writing isn't nearly as flawless as Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, which deals with similar people, it's not nearly as romantic as Little House in the Big Woods, and while it hits a lot of interesting notes, it also falls short in a lot of ways.
The book lacks a traditional plot, it meanders, but it isn't boring, it simply isn't all that cohesive. The stories are interesting, very similar to Little House, but missing some key elements. His mother comes off as . . . weak (that's not the right word), but compared to Laura Ingalls's mother she does very little to actually help. She had to be a hard woman to survive in Eastern Colorado, but she isn't written that way.
The times he waxes philosophic is just about garbage. It's a mix of nature worship, and description that adds very little and comes off as hollow if not downright silly. He connects to time past and present because he finds arrowheads. Instead of letting the story speak for itself, he tries to hold the reader's hand to make these tenuous connections. The childhood innocence of Little House simply isn't there. This is clearly an adult writing about these things after years of reflection.
The story is also . . . hollow after you think about it. His family stayed there for three years. That's it. They were even there during easy times before the depression or the dustbowl. He was already 10 when they got there, and easily able to help, and they only had one kid. Pa Wilder had three girls, under the age of, like, six (one of which went blind) and had to do most of it by himself. Three years does not make a childhood; and does not connect him to the land or the "past and present."
This book only really works for people who live in the area. It's interesting because I've called eastern Colorado home for nearly 12 years now. If you're not from the area, then I'm not sure what would possess you to read this. While it isn't a bad read by any means, it certainly seems to fall short in a lot of ways.
The book lacks a traditional plot, it meanders, but it isn't boring, it simply isn't all that cohesive. The stories are interesting, very similar to Little House, but missing some key elements. His mother comes off as . . . weak (that's not the right word), but compared to Laura Ingalls's mother she does very little to actually help. She had to be a hard woman to survive in Eastern Colorado, but she isn't written that way.
The times he waxes philosophic is just about garbage. It's a mix of nature worship, and description that adds very little and comes off as hollow if not downright silly. He connects to time past and present because he finds arrowheads. Instead of letting the story speak for itself, he tries to hold the reader's hand to make these tenuous connections. The childhood innocence of Little House simply isn't there. This is clearly an adult writing about these things after years of reflection.
The story is also . . . hollow after you think about it. His family stayed there for three years. That's it. They were even there during easy times before the depression or the dustbowl. He was already 10 when they got there, and easily able to help, and they only had one kid. Pa Wilder had three girls, under the age of, like, six (one of which went blind) and had to do most of it by himself. Three years does not make a childhood; and does not connect him to the land or the "past and present."
This book only really works for people who live in the area. It's interesting because I've called eastern Colorado home for nearly 12 years now. If you're not from the area, then I'm not sure what would possess you to read this. While it isn't a bad read by any means, it certainly seems to fall short in a lot of ways.
October 29, 2024
This book details several years during Hal Borland's childhood when he and his parents moved from Nebraska to Colorado and homesteaded on the eastern rural Colorado high plans outside of Brush, Colorado. They built a sod home and established a small farm on the plains. The author details their experiences establishing their homestead and provides breathtaking descriptions of the prairie. Here's but one snippet: "Timbered country has spring subleties, rising sap and first buds, florets on trees and bushes, half-hidden flowers among the rocks and leaf mold. But the plains are a vast simplicity at any season, their moods and changes swift, evident, and decisive. On that boundless open grassland neither spring nor any other season can hid or creep up slowly. Spring comes in a vast green wave rolling northward, a wave as evident as were the buffalo that once swept northward with new grass, as evident as the winter-hungry Indians that once swept northward with the buffalo. Spring on the plains has little more sublety than a thunderstorm." This is a quiet but powerful "coming of age" story from the early 1900s that anyone, and particularly anyone who has lived on the plains, can appreciate.
January 8, 2026
Gladys Taber made mention of several of her writer friends in her books. Faith Baldwin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Hal Borland, among others. I finally found this copy of High, Wide, and Lonesome, and enjoyed it very much.
The descriptions of nature, things he notices, character sketches of the people he and his family encounter, were fascinating. I am reminded again of the importance of recognizing the simple joys of life and community. I am also reminded that people never change, no matter how far into the past or the future we look. There will always be greedy people trying to discourage or sabotage others they see as a threat to their own attempts to accumulate as much as they can for themselves. There will always be kind, friendly people who want to help. There will always be that one guy who drives like hell on wheels (haha or horses) upon whom you can depend to get you where you need to go and on time. And, most importantly, there will be people who are determined to do what others tell them is not possible, and then prove those naysayers wrong. These are the ones I cheer for.
This book is both entertaining and inspirational, and it's clear why it is still available in libraries today.
The descriptions of nature, things he notices, character sketches of the people he and his family encounter, were fascinating. I am reminded again of the importance of recognizing the simple joys of life and community. I am also reminded that people never change, no matter how far into the past or the future we look. There will always be greedy people trying to discourage or sabotage others they see as a threat to their own attempts to accumulate as much as they can for themselves. There will always be kind, friendly people who want to help. There will always be that one guy who drives like hell on wheels (haha or horses) upon whom you can depend to get you where you need to go and on time. And, most importantly, there will be people who are determined to do what others tell them is not possible, and then prove those naysayers wrong. These are the ones I cheer for.
This book is both entertaining and inspirational, and it's clear why it is still available in libraries today.
August 5, 2023
Like my paternal grandfather, Hal Borland was born on a farm in the Midwest and his father homesteaded in Colorado (my great-grandfather in northwestern Colorado and Borland's father in northeastern Colorado). Being a Coloradoan by birth, I relish immersion in its historic past, because it reflects my family's past. Borland's biographical volume brings readers into his world, his experiences, his joys, and his disappointments. Rather than looking at him the way I view my grandfather, I identified with him as though I myself were that young boy on the eastern plains of pre-WW1 Colorado. My boyhood was very different, but my love of the Wyoming prairie where I grew up compares well to his love of the Colorado grasslands. High, Wide and Lonesome is not the literary classic Willa Cather's My Antonia is, but I could not help but find them equally satisfying and enjoyable. I can't wait to read another Borland volume.
January 12, 2025
My ancestors homesteaded just miles from the location Borland’s family homesteaded. My great grandmother wrote passages in the margins of the pages of my copy of the book, comparing her experience to Borland’s l, which made it even more personal and interesting.
I always appreciate an author from the 50s which can write something that is still relatable 70 years later, without cringe-worthy biases, racism, etc. Borland had some perspective ahead of his time about his experiences and the pros and cons of the homestead era.
Worth a read if you are interested in the homestead era in Colorado and the west.
I always appreciate an author from the 50s which can write something that is still relatable 70 years later, without cringe-worthy biases, racism, etc. Borland had some perspective ahead of his time about his experiences and the pros and cons of the homestead era.
Worth a read if you are interested in the homestead era in Colorado and the west.
October 5, 2020
I loved being taken back to the early 1900's life on the plains of Colorado through the eyes of a young boy. The writing was excellent with descriptions so vivid that I could transport myself there and see it with my own imagination.
It felt like the Little House on the Prairie book series but from a boy's view. Reading the book puts hardship in perspective. It also shows resilience and morals worth modeling. I really enjoyed my time with this book and didn't want it to end. It will fondly linger in my memory for a long time.
It felt like the Little House on the Prairie book series but from a boy's view. Reading the book puts hardship in perspective. It also shows resilience and morals worth modeling. I really enjoyed my time with this book and didn't want it to end. It will fondly linger in my memory for a long time.
October 9, 2020
I grew up on a 20 acre, two cow subsistence farm in rural "coal country" Pennsylvania in the 1950's.
The primary difference I remember from Mr. Borland's experience was that we had electricity in the barn and our barn had an overhead hay mow. Miserable to fill in June and July.
I remember having 2 pairs of shoes. One pair for church and the other to wear in the barn and then to school. The "aura" of my boots brought comments for my classmates.
This story of being a cash poor farm kid really took me back to my boyhood.
I enjoyed every word.
The primary difference I remember from Mr. Borland's experience was that we had electricity in the barn and our barn had an overhead hay mow. Miserable to fill in June and July.
I remember having 2 pairs of shoes. One pair for church and the other to wear in the barn and then to school. The "aura" of my boots brought comments for my classmates.
This story of being a cash poor farm kid really took me back to my boyhood.
I enjoyed every word.
May 21, 2023
What a wonderful book! A tale of blizzards, rattlesnakes, typhoid fever, fights, and the courage and persistence of Borland's parents and the young boy Borland who was pretty self-sufficient himself. The time is pre-WW I when homesteaders are taking over from ranchers and herders.
I hope there is a sequel. Young Hal is just starting school. His father is giving up the farm to go back to his trade of being a printer and Hal is going to learn the trade. They are moving to a brand new town.
I hope there is a sequel. Young Hal is just starting school. His father is giving up the farm to go back to his trade of being a printer and Hal is going to learn the trade. They are moving to a brand new town.
October 18, 2023
Excellent read. Trulely for me a wonderful story of a boy growing up in the early 1900's on a half section, 320 acre, Homestead. His Parents and he, Hal Borland, an only child, endure, persevere, and ultimately prove up and received their Patent, legal title to the land in 1915, signed by Woodrow Wilson, President. The story cronicals a young boys, 10 or so, experience and wonderment of life and lots of hard work with his parents creating a Homestead and enduring hardships but with a close bond, teamwork and devotion to creating a home and land ownership.
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