The American Cattle Drive & the Cowboy

A classic image of the American cowboy, as

portrayed by C.M. Russell an artist of the

Old American West.

The amount of ‘press’ such as early ‘dime’ novels, short stories, TV shows, magazine articles, and motion pictures that has been produced or published relating the life and times of the Cattle Drives and the American Cowboy during the last fifty years or so is enormous.  Perhaps five or ten thousand years from now some young archeologist reviewing this great wealth of information will be shocked to learn the era of the cattle drive, which many folks  consider the industry that  spawned the “cowboy” of the old American West only lasted about 30 years.

Although the cattle drive was short lived in American history, the fact is the various duties and tasks performed by the men and women who came to be known as cowboys and cowgirls have deep historic roots tracing all the way back to the earliest European settlers of the Americas, especially those from Spain.

The term, ‘cowboy’ was not used in the English language until 1725 and is believed to be a translation of the Spanish word ‘vaquero’ which describes an individual who manages cattle while mounted on a horse.

When first used, the term cowboy may have been intended to literally describe, ‘a boy who tends cows’.   Originally (as early as 1000 AD), the English word ‘cowherd’ was used to describe a cattle herder, quite similar to a ‘shepherd,’ or a sheep herder; typically thought of as a teenage boy, who generally worked on foot.

I expect that explains why to this day, those who manage cattle are never called ‘cowmen’ or ‘cowwomen’. They are or have been called many other names which include: ‘Cowhand’ appearing in 1852 and ‘cowpoke’ which appeared in 1881. Other common names are ‘buckaroo’ and ‘cowpuncher’.

On the other hand, if you were from South Arizona’s Tombstone area; during the 1880s, the term ‘Cowboy” or “cow-boy”, was often used in the negative sense to describe men who were caught up in various crimes. It seems there was a loosely organized band of outlaws that was called “The Cowboys”, who were known to profit regularly from stealing cattle, alcohol, and tobacco, from across the U.S./Mexico border, not to mention occasional killings on both sides of the border.

Following the American Civil War, young men came from the eastern, Midwestern, and the southern US to work on ranches and find employment on the cattle drives; more than 50,000 partook in the cattle drive endeavors alone. To be a cowboy became a passion amongst eastern college men in those days; in fact there were a few cowboys who came from the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe as well.

You see, it was not until after the Civil War that there was a demand for beef back east. So, in 1866 the first large-scale effort to drive cattle started in Texas with plans to herd or drive the cattle to Sedalia, Missouri, the nearest railhead for shipment to Chicago. However, farmers in eastern Kansas were afraid that these Longhorns, which had been taken from the wild, would transmit ‘cattle fever’ to local animals as well as destroy their crops. These groups spread the word that they would beat, shoot and perhaps kill, all cattlemen found on their Kansas lands. As a result, the 1866 drive failed to reach the railroad.

The following year, in 1867, a cattle shipping facility was built around the railhead at Abilene, Kansas, and quickly became a center of cattle shipping; loading more than 36,000 head of cattle that very year. The route from Texas to Abilene became known as the Chisholm Trail. It ran through present-day Oklahoma, which then was Indian Territory in those days. However, in spite of Hollywood’s telling of the story, there were relatively few conflicts with Native Americans; after all they were not stupid; the typically toll they charged was generally ten cents a head.

By the 1890’s the railroads had expanded their range throughout the west, which pretty much killed the need for the cattle drive. Additionally, barb-wire fences had become standard throughout the northern plains, and meat packing plants that had historically been in the eastern cities of the US were built closer to major ranching areas, making long cattle drives from Texas to the railheads in Kansas unnecessary anyway. Thus, the age of the open range was gone and large cattle drives were yet another thing of the past.

While it's true that some cowboys of the old west were rustlers and others were even professional gunfighters, the average American Cowboy was not only very often lonely, but he lived in harsh conditions and was frequently exposed to danger. They didn’t make a lot of money and were forced to enjoy, you might say, a simple life style. As a general rule they were reserved around strangers, did not tolerate unkindness, cowardice, dishonesty, chronic complaining, or the mistreatment of lady folk, who were rather scarce in the western frontier. In short, they were often described as being tough as nails, but generous and hospitable. But as long as Americans and the world continue to demand the by-products of beef, unlike the cattle drive, the cowboy will without doubt, live on.

Sources ...

http://www.grandcanyonranch.com/the_cowboy.htm                                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy