William Big Foot Wallace, Texas Ranger, belonged to the wild, untamed frontier. His story is a Texas story, full of color, action and flamboyance; Indian raids and scalping, tall tales and exaggeration. Most of all, the story of Big Foot's life is the story of Texas — sprawling, brawling, vibrant with a new growth that is vitally American and vitally alive.

Big Foot went down to Texas to avenge the death of his brother who had been killed defending the Alamo. By the time he got there, the war was over, and Big Foot liked the wide open spaces and frontier living and so he stayed on.

But he itched for action and adventure and when he heard that the Mexicans had attacked San Antonio, he joined the Texas Rangers to defend the settlers and drive the invaders back across the frontier. Once he was captured by Indians and once by the Mexicans who held him prisoner for two years. When he was released, he drove a stage coach with the mail through hostile Indian country.

Life on the Texas frontier in those days was vigorous and violent and survival required stamina, resourcefulness and a steady finger on the trigger. And every man was quick to defend the Lone Star State. William Wallace was born in Virginia, but he was a Texan through and through and he had an important part in building it and defending it. As he himself often said, he saw a heap of history in the making and taming of Texas. Ranger Wallace sought neither fame nor fortune but he has become the outstanding folk hero of Texas.

From the dust jacket