Book Review: The X Bar X Boys on Big Bison Trail by James Cody Ferris
Roy and Teddy Manley are seventeen and sixteen years old, respectively. Though Roy is dark-haired and serious while Teddy is blond and jovial, they otherwise bear a strong family resemblance. They live and work on their father Bradford Manley’s ranch, the X Bar X, one of the largest in the state. As it happens, today is their sister Belle’s thirteenth birthday, and Teddy has ridden all the way over to Los Dipono to secure her present.
This is a “teddy bear” made from real bearskin by a local taxidermist, Hank Wall. He was recommended to the boys by one of the ranch hands, Nick Looker, who was, he says, born in Los Dipono. On the way home, the boys get caught in a sudden May rainstorm. Taking refuge in an abandoned cabin, Teddy is startled by a large creature which looks like a gorilla escaping past him. Roy would ordinarily discount this wild story, but there’s a fresh print in the mud that looks “ape-like.”
The creature does not reappear, and once the rain clears, the boys continue home. Belle is delighted by her gift, as are her two Eastern friends Nell Willis and Ethel “Curly” Carew, semi-permanent guests at the nearby 8 X 8 ranch.
Roy and Teddy join the ranch hands in the bunkhouse for some hypnotism tomfoolery, but primarily to check in with Nick Looker. His uncle recently died and left $6000.00 to “Nicholas Looker” who was born in Los Dipono, but Nick had been gone for years and no birth certificates were issued in that part of the country back in 1900, so he’s not sure he can prove his identity, especially as apparently there’s another Nick Looker also claiming the inheritance. NIck is especially desperate for the money as he lost a bankroll he’d been entrusted with by another cowpoke who’s out of town, but only we the readers know this.
The next day the boys take the girls on a fishing excursion/picnic, which is interrupted by the girls seeing the ape. It runs away, but no sense being careless, so back home they go. On the way back, they run into another hand, Nat Raymond, who’s chasing after some folks he saw camping way too close to the X Bar X land, suspecting it might be Denver Smith, the rustler they’d had trouble with before. (It turns out it was, but Smith isn’t ready yet and will strike in the next volume.)
Later that day, Roy and Teddy are sent to the town of Eagles to deliver a package. They witness what initially appears to be a bank robbery, but is actually a film shoot. A small movie company, Marvel Films, is in the area to shoot a Western. Director Sam Kane and star performer Tod Jackson are hoping to have a hit to make their independent studio financially viable. There’s another actor, but he’s not sociable, so the boys don’t get a good look at him yet.
The movie people need some shots done at a ranch, and the boys are amenable, if their father agrees. More excitingly, Marvel Films wants to do some location shooting on Big Bison Trail, and the boys certainly want in on that!
Later at the ranch, there’s some comedy as all the hands turn out in their Sunday best rather than their usual outfits, so they have to be persuaded to go back to authentic work clothes. The other actor shows up late, is incredibly insulting, and turns out to be the other Nick Looker. He misbehaves and is fired on the spot, but continues to be obnoxious as he was only using the movie company to get to the area to claim “his” inheritance. Good thing the first Nick isn’t there today! Roy’s photogenic looks and Teddy’s riding skills are praised.
After the movie folk leave, a comical-looking fellow drives up. This is “Break” O’Day, an animal trainer. He explains that the ape is actually a baboon that he was supposed to supply for the movie. (Why they needed a baboon for a Western remains a mystery.)
A bit later, a crooked lawyer named Pettit appears and tries to get Nick Looker to commission him for a forged birth certificate. Nick refuses on the grounds that he might be desperate but he’s not a criminal.
With all the pieces in place, it’s time to head off to Big Bison Trail and the climaxes of the story!
The X Bar X Boys series was produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which also gave us Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys. It was published from 1926 to 1942 using various writers under a house name.
This is exciting boys’ adventure fiction of the time, with plenty of action, some mild peril, and clearly defined morality. The good people are good, the bad people are hissable, and the comic relief characters are funny. The girls are there to be in distress with some very mild “ship tease” and the boys’ mother…exists.
It’s mentioned that the bison who named the trail are “gone” but the narration doesn’t dwell on why that is, preferring to wax poetic about the romance of the Western landscape.
Content note: The baboon dies offscreen in an anticlimactic end to that subplot. A horse is injured. A man falls down a mountain and is injured. There’s one punch thrown, but no gunplay. By Western standards this is very mild stuff and kids eight and up or so should be fine.
This volume of the series is competently written; from the plot outlines I’ve seen, others might be a bit more violent. It’s going to be hard to find this or other X Bar X Boys books in good condition, but the earliest volumes are in the public domain, so you can search for them online. Recommended for fans of boys’ adventure and mild Western action.
