The 1920s and 1930s brought many exciting and true adventures to the three Hazelwood brothers, Chester, Loren, and Melvin, on their family's ranch outside Pagosa Springs, Colorado. They had many of the adventures of those earlier pioneers of the 1880s and 1890s. There were Native Americans and mountain men, terrible snow storms and severe accidents, outlaws and crooked horse traders, and narrow escapes with locomotives. Trapping brought in much of their hard cash and hunting and fishing supplied most of the family's food. Boys on ranches had to grow up quickly in such an environment by necessity. Quite often there were life and death decisions for them to make. Often times the boys had to be sent by themselves into far meadows to guard their cattle from predators like mountain lions or grizzly bears. They also had to protect the stray cattle and their calves from sure death if left outside in the winter's cold. The Pagosa Springs branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and several private lumber railroads ran through their property and runaway trains brought even more dangers. Enduring almost as much danger and hijinks was the trip to Denver and the Denver Stock Show. There are few books about Colorado's daily ranching life in the '20s and '30s, and even fewer books on ranching and other activities in early Pagosa Springs. Therefore you will find these stories that happened back the to be amazing!