Book describes life on Benge-area ranch

BENGE - A former Adams County resident has written a book about childhood on a Macall-area sheep ranch in the late 1930s.

Richard W. Etulain, 84, a professor emeritus at University of New Mexico, has released his new book, "Boyhood Among the Woolies: Growing up on a Basque Sheep Ranch."

The history professor's book is about his childhood growing up in the scablands – his family homestead was in the Macall area.

Born in Wapato in 1938, Etulain was brought home to a "isolated and sprawling" 10,000-acre ranch north of Benge and about 20 miles east of Ritzville.

"If the dry grazing lands dominated...