Longtime Steamboat Springs resident Matt Tredway, who has embraced the cowboy lifestyle since he was a child, has written a book filled with the stories of ranchers stretching from his original hometown of Gunnison to the Yampa Valley.

“I was a town kid, but grew up working on those ranches,” said Tredway, who said his new book, “The West: Essays of Mountain Cowboys” is expected to be on the shelves within the next two weeks at Off the Beaten Path Bookstore, 68 Ninth St.

Tredway said the book will also be available at the Abracadabra bookstore in Gunnison and should be available online at some point this fall.

“Essays of Mountain Cowboys” is a collection of stories spanning Tredway’s personal experience growing up in Gunnison and working on ranches throughout his life. He said the material reflects personal family stories as well as the stories of cowboys he has worked with during his life.

The book draws from iconic Routt County ranching families including the Green, Daughenbaugh, Stanko, Deline and Schalnus families. The stories also come from ranchers  including Shane Yeager, Cass Leonard and the Hildreth brothers, just to name a few. There are also stories honoring the contributions of cowboy artists like Curtis Zabel, Rudi Mergelman and Barbara East.

“The stories are based on the people I crossed paths with,” Tredway said. “It starts with Gunnison, and then kind of crosses into Routt County with the Stankos, Daughenbaughs and Schalnus’ from South Routt. There is also the old rawhide braider, Cecil Connor, and some familiar names from Phippsburg.”

Tredway wants readers to feel like they are walking through his tack room, where he keeps a collection of Western memorabilia. He said the stories and memories in the book are linked to the collection of artifacts in his home that includes saddles, spurs and chaps.

“The collection I gaze at hangs on a wall in my tack room. It surrounds a leather stitcher and a table where I craft chaps, saddles and other cowboy tools,” Tredway writes in the introduction. “To the untrained eye, it’s a haphazard group of worn saddles, rusty spurs and old faded leather. To me it is a unique assemblage of yester-year screaming to be heard.”

Tredway, a longtime Steamboat Springs High School wrestling coach and teacher who retired from the school district 15 years ago, said he spent a winter talking to ranchers about the stories he has heard over his life. He added that the text for the book came together surprisingly fast, and he is currently working through the editing and production process, which is being led by Sophie Dingle and Melissa VanArsdale.