Book debut! The Dundee Matadors ||

In between field work, we've enjoyed a couple of literary nights out. We are very proud to see Grandpa Ewan’s book in print – and signed copies in demand! 

Over the last couple of years, there has been many the extraordinary anecdote or tale shared around the kitchen island, a nugget that he has discovered from his research, and often with local resonance or an uncanny connection. In fact, it was this series of coincidences that made it a book he just had to write.

An agricultural journalist and editor for over 35 years, this is Ewan's first book, the idea prompted by the discovery of some beautifully hand-written ledgers recording the accounts and land management for a ranch in Texas for a Board of Directors in Dundee.

Curiosity spiked, Ewan followed the story from Dundee, one of the wealthiest cities in Europe at the time, and across Scotland to Texas to tell the fascinating, lesser-known story of a small group of local businessmen who, in the 1880s, took the bold risk to invest 5,000 miles from home at the very frontier of the Texan ‘Wild West’.

Over 69 years, they built one of the largest and best managed cattle empires in the United States, The Matador. The fact that it was by far the longest lived and the most successful owes much to the character and skill of the people involved on both sides of the Atlantic.

It transpired that the ledgers were the missing documents in a very comprehensive archive on the Matador Ranch, now held at the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and they were so close to being lost forever, and potentially the story they told with it.

The safe had been bought at a farm roup in Lanarkshire. It couldn’t be opened but before it was scrapped for good, thankfully, not only did the owners force it open to find any lost treasure, but one of them recalled a story they’d once read about The Matador Ranch, written by Ewan in The Courier, and knew who to call…

We are all the richer for knowing a little bit more about our local history and the people who made it.

The Dundee Matadors, a historical account, is available in bookshops and here from the homepage of our website.

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