‘Last Cowboys’ book chronicles legendary Utah rodeo family

ST. GEORGE, UTAH » A Utah family that has produced several generations of rodeo champions is chronicled in a new book called “The Last Cowboys.”

The Wrights family book written by New York Times’ Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter John Branch was released May 15. Branch spent more than three years with the Wrights to put it together, The Spectrum reported .

“They’re like the Mannings of rodeo,” Branch said. “As long as the Mannings had five or six more quarterbacks in the NFL. The Mannings wish they were the Wrights of the NFL, probably.”

The Wrights, from the southern Utah town of Milford, have produced generation after generation of rodeo champions. But the book isn’t just about winning saddle bronc titles. It’s about a family’s challenge adapting to a changing American West as the world grows smaller.

It’s about a parcel of land on Smith Mesa and whether the Wrights can, or even should, remain there. It’s about the Old West becoming new.

“I wanted to be able to highlight the broader picture,” Branch said. “The drought, the federal land use, the organization of the West. . Cities and small towns are dying, but some are booming, and that brings its own kind of problems.”

Iglesias loves his fans, but misses family ‘like crazy’

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL » Pop star Enrique Iglesias misses his newborn twins “like crazy.” But he says performing for his fans is the next best thing to being home.

While the Spanish singer has traditionally kept his personal life private, he and his wife, former tennis player Anna Kournikova, took to social media last week to share some rare photos and videos of themselves and their children. He said he wanted to open up to his fans because