The Last Cows: On Ranching, Wonder, and a Woman’s Heart

Told from the unique perspective of a woman, mother, environmentalist, cowboy, and rancher, this work of literary nonfiction conveys the joys, challenges, heartbreaks, and qualms of contemporary ranching in the American West.

On nineteen thousand acres of combined public and private land in southwest Colorado, Kathryn Wilder and her son, with the help of additional family members, run Criollo cattle, a heritage breed that originated in Spain. Smaller by hundreds of pounds than other European breeds, these cows are uniquely adapted to the desert. In The Last Cows Wilder considers whether the integrity of her program--Criollo cattle, holistic management practices, and organically raised, grass-fed-and-finished beef sold through local markets--is enough to support a regenerative relationship between cattle and desert. And as Wilder approaches seventy, she considers how long she can maintain the demanding physical labor and complex schedule that have been part of her life’s work.

In this engaging and thoughtful narrative that blends biology, geology, natural history, and human history into her personal story, Wilder offers an intimate view into the inner workings of a rancher’s heart.

Kathryn Wilder is a writer and rancher in Dolores and Disappointment Valley, Colorado. She is the author of Desert Chrome: Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West, coauthor of Forbidden Talent, with Redwing T. Nez, and editor of Walking the Twilight: Women Writers of the Southwest, volumes 1 and 2.