NM rancher signs books at Las Cruces gallery

Cutter Gallery will host a book signing from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday Aug. 18 for Lea County rancher Carl Lane Johnson, who is promoting his new memoir, “Way Before Daylight, Long After Dark: a New Mexico Rancher’s Story.” The book contains photographs, maps and drawings depicting the ranching life Johnson has experienced for many years, according to publisher Lea County Museum Press. The gallery is at 2640 El Paseo in Las Cruces. Information: Sally Cutter, 575-541-0658.

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The Lea County Museum Press has just published a memoir by Lea County rancher Carl Lane Johnson who has lived and worked in Lea all of his life and whose family has been part of county history for a century.
With the title of “Way Before Daylight, Long After Dark: A New Mexico Rancher’s Story,” the 316-page book is the twelth published by the LCM in the last nine years.
The book contains dozens of images, including family photographs, maps, and drawings by Mike Capron, Joe Hobbs, and one photograph by Gordon Snidow.
Johnson has been writing the book for several years, and it contains chapters about many of the cowboys and ranchers he has known and with whom he has worked. In addition, the book briefly chronicles the lives of some of his near and distant relatives on both sides of his family and for several generations.
“Way Before Daylight” is an LCM companion to the Lane-Johnson Room, which opened two years ago, on the second floor of the Commercial Hotel.
In photographs, maps, and memorabilia, the room relates stories of family members in both the Johnson and Lane families.
Here is one paragraph from the book’s introductory chapter (“Here We Go!”) which suggests the contents of the book:
“It is not supposed to be any more than a partial record of my life and the times that I lived. This isn’t going to be a bronc stomping, wild cow gathering, rodeo, wild west story that so many have written about; just a journal. I have written this book ‘the way it was’--no sugar coating. You will find stories about parties and wild times. I was single for over 26 years--between the ages of 18-57.
“I worked hard, loving every minute of it. But it was good to leave the ranch, have fun and see my friends. When it was time to go back to the ranch I always returned more than ready to get back to work. Many, many men have done more and lived much more exciting lives than I; so this may be a pretty boring reading, and if you find it so, put it down.”
The will is now on sale for $27.50 at the LCM Bookstore located in the museum’s 1918 Commercial Hotel building, 103 S. Love Street, Lovington.
The book can also be purchased through the mail by sending a check to the LCM at the above address, New Mexico 88260.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Lea County Museum.
For more information, call the LCM at 575-396-4805.