Merrano of the Dry Country
By
Louis L'Amour
Barry Merrano carved out a ranch in the unforgiving terrain of Mirror Valley—a place so dry it made Hell look hospitable. While others watched their land parch and their cattle suffer, Merrano thrived. He’d spent 4 years building dams and ponds, capturing every drop of runoff the land would give. Now, he was the only rancher with water.
The others were desperate. Their herds were dying, their wells bone dry. And Merrano had what they needed. They didn’t care how they got it—only that they would. One way or another.
This gripping short story appears in Louis L'Amour's Frontier Stories Volume 7. At 34 pages, it's a bit longer than most in the collection, but L'Amour makes every page count. The tale centers on Merrano, a determined rancher who foresaw the dangers of drought and worked tirelessly to secure water for his land. In contrast, Tom Drake—owner of the powerful TD brand and the valley’s wealthiest man—had no water. His daughter, however, caught Merrano’s attention.
Merrano was despised by the other ranchers. As the son of a Mexican Vaquero who had once left and returned, he was seen as an outsider. They tried to fence him off from water, but Merrano found it anyway. Worse, he warned them they were destroying their land and that when drought came, their cattle would suffer. They hated him for being right.
And when the drought finally hit, Merrano had what they needed—and they came to take it.
This was a fantastic read. It felt like a full novel distilled into a short story, packed with tension, grit, and action that kept the pages turning.
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