This is a wonderful dictionary. Western language takes work and violence and humor and a canny sexuality and uses them to enrich the terse conversation of cowboys, Indians, loggers, and other wild folk with history, culture, tradition, puns and irreverence. It's a language that comes from Spanish and French and Dutch and Indian and cussedness.
This dictionary pauses in its definition of mayordomo to discuss New Mexican acequias in a liesurely way. The definition of dogie, and speculation on its origins, is a satisfying essay on its own.
It's a book for reading, not a reference tool--it's too hard to get out of to be resorted to on a purely practical basis. Makes you glad to be a speaking creature.

* A murder. A body in the streets at dawn. Said to have been commonplace in the early days of Los Angeles and in Denver.

This book is invaluable to me as I work in a Museum that specializes in western exploration and life. There have been very few inquiries from visitors from all over the world that cannot be found in this book. Information from the early 1800's to the present time abound in this book in very digestible terms. Excellent reference book.