Page 65 - 2006 DT 12 Issues

I n T h i s I s s u e !

Featured Article
The Great Cattle Drives........................1
Special
Lovely Day At Death Valley....................5
Departments
News & Notes.......................................2
Programs & Hikes.................................4
September 2006 Desk Schedule.....................................6

Bulletin Board.......................................8

THE GREAT CATTLE DRIVES . . a pillow at night. For that, the trail
I n T h i s I s s u e ! .
boss might get $100 a month, with
The reality, the fi ction, Hollywood, the romance and the trail hands getting around $25. Usu-
hardship . . . a great American story. ally the trail boss would ride several
miles ahead to scout for water, grass
By Chuck Kleber expanses of Texas . . . and they were for grazing and a good campsite. On
largely unbranded. Round-ups were
ead ‘em out!” The trail chaotic as ranchers strove to identify either side of the column of cattle,
boss gives his orders and brand cattle claimed to be theirs. cowboys rode positions known as
“Hand the cowboys re- Rustlers, often called “maverickers” point, swing and fl ank to keep the herd
spond. There are thousands of Texas (after unbranded cattle), weren’t hard orderly. At the rear, drag riders picked
longhorns that will bring a big price at to fi nd, but justice was swift at the end up stragglers, urging them on. They
the railheads in Kansas and Missouri, of a rope or an even quicker bullet. had to suffer the choking dust from
but first they must cross enormous The northern and eastern states thousands of hoofs.

expanses of hostile land. There are wanted beef, and Texas meant to meet Early on, Charles Goodnight re-
treacherous rivers, hostile Indians that need. A good beef animal, worth alized the importance of food to the
(usually Comanche), rustlers, thunder about $5 in Texas, could bring $50 hard-working cowpokes. He hit upon
and lightning storms, blizzards and in the North. It was worth it to move the idea of converting war surplus mu-
other dangers. This was the stuff of the cattle along the 1,000 or more miles of nitions wagons into traveling kitchens.
Old West that never ceases to fascinate trails to rail- They were so
America. It didn’t last long, little more head towns. successful that
than 20 years, but few events in our Perhaps the the “Chuck
history have captured the imagination most famous Wagon” was
like the great cattle drives that fol- trail of all born, earn-
lowed the Civil War, far surpassing ran from the ing him even
those of the pre-war years. Red River in more lasting
When the South seceded, Texans north Texas fame than the
rushed to join the colors as did young to Abilene, famous Good-
men from other states, North and Kansas. It night-Loving
South. There was a difference, how- was the storied Chisholm Trail, named Trail that lay to the west of the
ever. Texans left behind large herds after the part-Cherokee hunter and Chisholm Trail. Movies have often
of the legendary and incredibly tough trader who saw great opportunity in shown cowboys singing around camp

longhorn cattle. Big and rangy, they the beef-hungry North. Cattle traveled fires and the chuck wagon at night.
commonly weighed between 1,000 and about 10 to 15 miles a day, so cowboys Hollywood hooey? Not at all. Cattle
1,600 pounds. By the end of the war, found themselves on the trail for three seemed to be soothed by the songs of
their numbers had grown enormously, and even four months. It was a grueling the trail hands, helping to preclude a
“like bluebonnets on the April plains.” life of long hours in the saddle during
More than six million roamed the vast the day with a bedroll and saddle for
Cattle Drives, continued on page 6