Hypnotizing Chickens and Other Stories: My Memories of Mogollon

Hypnotizing Chickens is a charming collection of Jan Sherman’s true stories–written in collaboration with Charlie McKee–of growing up in a remote gold and silver mining community during the 1920s and ‘30s. Travel back with Jan to a simpler time and place in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico to Mogollon, now a near ghost town since World War II. In reviewing this collection, Tom Hester (grazer of history and good writing) wrote: Mogollon, New Mexico, and its talented memoirist Jan Sherman offer us literary gold more valuable than the metal stuff. Abandoned mine tunnels, ownerless burros, overnight fishing trips, neighborhood hermits, school bus commutes that could sum to transcontinental trips, cowboy pranks, and hypnotized hens are recreated with wit dryer than the Chihuahuan Desert. In addition to Jan Sherman’s memorable stories, the book includes dozens of historic photos as well as a Mogollon map, original art by artist M. Fred Barraza, and literary contributions by Jeff Ray, Richard Mahler, and Bob and Vicki Moore.