Tag Archives: William Francis Hooker

“The Bullwhacker: Adventures of a Frontier Freighter” by William Francis Hooker is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.

Rough as a cob, the bullwhacker has never been romanticized, but his work was as essential as the cowboy’s, and perhaps more hazardous. Young William Hooker, who came west from Wisconsin to Wyoming Territory in the early 1870s, would not be disappointed in his search for exhilarating open-air adventure. Soon he was driving a team of oxen hauling supplies for army posts and Indian reservations far from the railroad. He cracked a bullwhip and kept a rifle ready as he delivered sugar, bacon, blankets, and other destinations along the old Cheyenne, Medicine Bow, and Sidney trails. And the thrilling stories he lived to tell! All true. About outlaws, rum runners, and collisions with Indians. About the feuding between bullwhackers and military officers. About exposure to every kind of varmint and the the fury of the elements. About the daily perils and pleasures of rumbling down some pretty primitive trails in the Old West.

TBBS borrowers can request “The Bullwhacker: Adventures of a Frontier Freighter” DBC02180 or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.