In 1996 photographer Carl Corey glanced back over his untold forays to the West, both on assignment and for personal exploration, and asked the questions: "What is it? Where is it? Is it even still there? Or could it be the heart and soul of the American West - that fiercely independent spirit that carved a livelihood out of an isolated, hardened land - eroded long ago?"<BR>Corey then set out to find a place that maintained an identity that could be uniquely defined as the American West. He found it in the Dakotas among the ranchers, the progeny of the men and women who left safe havens in the East to build better lives in the West. The photographs in Rancher document the steps of a journey that spanned five years. While there are pictures of the land, the book is a testament to the proud people who worked it - American people, whose lives exemplify and define what was and continues to be the American West.