Cowboys on a cattle drive did not ride one horse, though they might have a favorite. Required fields are marked *. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate General. Hardin aside, most desperadoes and fast-pistol men appear to have behaved themselves around cattle and cowboys, and several—including Wild Bunch members Harry Alonzo “Sundance Kid” Longabaugh and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan— were reportedly fine hands, who endeared themselves to their bosses and found a welcome when a welcome was needed. If taking part in large cattle drives is what you're searching for then look no further than Focus Ranch in Wyoming. Their trail crew was known, in the parlance of the time, as a “gun outfit.” Ira sometimes served as head trail boss, and he was neither well liked nor respected by his drovers. So in those cases, they’d shuck … Ron Soodalter writes often about the American West and the CivilWar. Life on Cattle Drives. They would sometimes sing a soothing lullaby to their cattle to calm them down and prevent the possibility of stampede. When he wasn’t off seeking water or scoping the route, the trail boss generally rode point, as did the cook (aka “belly-cheater,” “biscuit shooter” and other unprintable nicknames) and his chuck wagon—a practical carryall purportedly devised by famed Texas cowman Charles Goodnight. Most, Abbott wrote, were of medium build, quick and wiry, “as a heavy man was hard on horses.” They were, he recalled, “as a rule very good-natured; in fact it did not pay to be anything else.…I have seen them ride into camp after two days and nights on herd, lay down on their saddle blankets in the rain and sleep like dead men, then get up laughing and joking about some good time they had had in Ogallala or Dodge City.” Fiercely loyal to the outfit, they would, Teddy Blue insisted, “follow their wagon boss through hell and never complain.” The drovers were a nervy bunch. Then, in the winter of 1885–86 several feet of ice and snow buried the northern range, making winter graze inaccessible and destroying cattle in staggering numbers, with stock losses that reached 90 percent. Many picture it a fun and exciting work, riding with buddies on open range by day, eating hearty meals, and sleeping under starry skies at night. If taking part in large cattle drives is what you're searching for then look no further than Focus Ranch in Wyoming. Analyze information from a visual display. Ab” to his drovers. 1. About one third of the cowhands were Mexican or African-American. On the flip side of the coin were the Olive brothers—Thomas, Ira, Bob and Isom Prentice (aka “Print”). Updated: August 18, 2020. Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack: Accounts of Cattle Drives, Railroads, Indians & Characters of the Old West. Abbott noted that prostitutes often “followed [the cowboys] up” as the action shifted from one cow town to another, “and we would meet old pals in new places.” A popular cowboy song of the time, which went by the name “St. by Frank Benton | Mar 20, 2013. Ranchers saw this as a lucrative opportunity. Different cowboys had different jobs, for example there was a wrangler who cared for the horses and a chuck wagon who transported food, water and equipment. His latest book is 2018’s Arizona Oddities: A Land of Anomalies and Tamales. Move ’em out!’ These six words, which closed most episodes of the popular TV series Rawhide (1959–65), sum up what many Americans know about the cattle drives of the post-Civil War West—that is to say, little. As a fifth generation farmer, in Salem, Bobby Simpson is no stranger to working with his family. Through these interactions, I formed bonds with my fellow drivers, and my mind began to change. Dollman. The long drive was a difficult journey. It came in the unromantic form of pneumonia, from sleeping under a single thread-worn blanket in all weather. During the war, Texas cattle—almost exclusively of the temperamental, slab-sided, long-horned variety—had been roaming wild and procreating, with no local market in sight. The drive, which could take anywhere from several weeks to several months, depending on the trail and destination, could be boring for long stretches at a time, with nothing to see but flat land, dust and the bony hind ends of the cattle. Paperback $13.00 $ 13. Suggested for further reading are the books referenced in the story, as well as The Log of a Cowboy (1903), by Andy Adams; The Longhorns (1941) and Cow People (1964), both by J. Frank Dobie; The American Cowboy (1955), by Joe B. Frantz and Julian E. Choate Jr.; Once in the Saddle (1973), by Laurence I. Seidman; The Rawhide Years (1976), by Glenn R.Vernam; and Saddling Up Anyway (2006), by Patrick Dearen. Retrouvez Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack: Accounts of Cattle Drives, Railroads, Indians & Characters of the Old West by Frank Benton (2013-03-20) et des millions de livres en stock sur Amazon.fr. Perhaps the most famous was Abner Pickens Blocker—“Ab” to his friends and “Mr. Cowhand Andy Adams described his brief visit to Ogallala and the broad spectrum of female companionship to be had for a price: “Here might be seen the frailty of women in every grade and condition. Among the most nerve-racking was the fording of rivers—and there were many rivers to cross. Author: Lauren Feldman Updated: Feb 13, 2017 Original: Jul 25, 2016. Credit: MCKIBILLO The cattle drive in this illustration is a bit overmanned, but it still gives you a good idea where cowboys should be positioned. The Cattle Drive Cowboys often worked on cattle drives. One resource Texans had in plenty, however, was cattle. The steers will be sold upon reaching their destination and the cowboys can ride back home. 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