It’s 5:30 a.m. and the temperature already tops 100 degrees on a summer morning in Rifle, Colo. The parking lot of the Rusty Cannon Motel, just off Interstate 70, is filled to capacity with white pickup trucks, nearly all of which belong to workers in the natural gas industry.

Rarely does a book live up to its title. Clyde Milner and Carol O’Connor’s biography of Montana pioneer Granville Stuart, As Big As the West, is an exception.

The annual Tucson Rodeo was held February 21 through March 1, 2009, for the 84th time. Spaniards held the first rodeo there in 1775. Before barbed wire cut up the country and kept cattle of different brands from running together, a roundup of cattle on open range was called a rodeo.

As one of 19 full-time brand inspectors in Southern California, it’s Tina Moody’s job to ensure that all cattle sold or transported in the region are properly documented with a state-issued ID tag.

“You don’t sell a car without a pink slip and you don’t buy cattle without a brand inspection,” she says.