Daily Life on the Cattle Drives
howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
I've been talking about the Western Cattle Drives which started right
after the Civil War ended in 1865 and the drives began in 1866 and
most of them originated in South Texas. I probably didn't address the
main reason for the drives in a comprehensible manner though.
As a result of the Civil War there was a shortage of beef after feeding
the armies of the North and South. During the war the cattle herds
in Texas were largely untended as far as being culled and sold so
they grew rapidly in numbers.
While this created a glut in the Texas and surrounding areas, there
was a serious shortage in the East with prices reaching $50 per head.
Well, the price per head in Texas after the war was about $3 so
obviously there was money to be made and a market to fill in the East.
Thats what started the cattle drives in the first place and for the first
few years it was exclusively these guys who were being driven:
Can you imagine being caught in a stampede with thousands of these
guys thundering toward you? It happened quite a bit. The main dangers
for cowboys on the drive were stampedes, weather, Indians, and the
crossing of rivers which was extremely dangerous especially after rains.
The daily life of the cowboy was tough with about 14 hours a day in the
saddle no matter how hot, how cold, how heavy the rainfall was, none of
that mattered because they couldn't lose control of the herd. Now, if
you've ever been around cattle you know that just like most creatures
they can get used to routines.
So generally after a few days cattle knew the routine and would fall into it
each day. However, cattle can be spooked by the slightest sound that
they aren't accustomed to so life around the camp at night was as quiet
and peaceful as the Cowboys could make it.
The slightest unusual sound could startle a steer and that one sudden
panic behavior of one steer could cause catastrophy. It could be the snap
of a twig in the quiet of the night, it could be closeby lightning in a storm,
it could even be a clang produced by something hitting the cast iron
cook pot.
Many Cowboys were killed in stampedes if they weren't on their horses
or if they were on their horse and their horse stepped in a hole and fell
down or fell because it was gored by a Longhorn.
The herd had to be watched all night so the cowboys took turns in 2 to
4 hour shifts. This was an exhausting job folks, I'm getting tired just
thinking about it! It was hard on the horses too. There were probably
75-100 horses for the cowboys to ride because they changed horses
every couple of hours so for a crew of 12-18 men...
A full time Wrangler was hired just to keep them fed, maintained,
watered, protected and kept track of. That also meant at least one
more wagon full of grain for the horses. So the hours sucked, the
work was hard and dangerous not to mention miserable with the heat,
cold, wind, sleepless nights, dangers, pitiful pay(they made about one
dollar a day).
I feel like I'm suffering a hardship if the tv goes out for a little while!
But for many this was one of few options, especially Blacks who were
ex slaves. That reminds me of another interesting point..the Blacks
were part of the crew and were treated with equal respect among
the other cowboys.
But when they got to the end of the trail or when they went through
towns along the way they were significantly discriminated against
by not being allowed into restaurants, bars and hotels much of the
time!
Thanks for reading folks, will have more next post.
God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- ya know, you might just be a redneck if:
Redman Chewing Tobacco sends you a Christmas Card!
It's the swollen rivers that scare me the most just thinking about them. It amazes me the courage some of these guys going down into them, especially not knowing when they might drop off from thigh deep to way over your horse's head at any moment.
I know, well I'm going to go into more details about how bad the river crossings were, I have a quote from a cowboy talking about it and he kept a diary, one of the few who ever did. but the rivers killed a lot of cattle, horses and men.
I'm sure they must have! You couldn't pay me enough to go into a river as high as some of them must have been.
yeah high and fast if it just rained. we don't think about there not being any bridges back then, or I least I don't until I start studying something like this.
P.S. I thought you were going to say if you got more Christmas cards from John Deere than your own family...lol...
lol! hey that would work as a good one too!
maybe you should be my redneck joke writer, you could just use stuff from your own family! lol. oh, is that funny?
That's funny, my friend!
funny because it's not true or funny because it IS true? lol
Love hearing these stories. Sometimes we wish we could be real cowboys but I don't think I'd do well without running water and a toilet just sayin
lol! yes Ma'am I'm so spoiled that I like modern plumbing. wait till I get to the part about bathrooms! lol. no actually I haven't found hardly anything about that yet, maybe they didn't want to talk about it. so glad you like this history stuff, most people think history is boring.
but hey, a lot of cowtowns in Oklahoma sprang up because of these big cattle drives, I need to look up where the main drive trails were in relation to you guys. but yeah it was a brutal, dangerous, miserable job.
thanks so much!
They did have a very hard life and a few even lived long enough to talk about it! I don't know the numbers, perhaps you do, the numbers of men lost on cattle drives?
howdy again @cecicastor! well Ma'am no I don't have numbers and no one does because they didn't report things to the authorities like they do now but I think it was a fairly rare thing to lose someone but if I find out differently I'll let you know. thank you Cecicastor!
any updates coming?
Hopefully, I can bang out something this weekend. Not many photos coming through anymore. Everyone'scameras and phones are being confiscated...
howdy today @cecicastor! oh,...that doesn't sound good. More attempts to keep the news from the outside world. Before people were posting a lot of photos online?
Yes, they were, on FB, Twitter, Youtube and on 100%Noticias. But now they have all but dried up...
hey now that's downright scary, that's eerie like where did everyone go?
hey Cecicastor you are all over the place as far as commenting, you should enter the contest that I've been winning called the Engagement League. All you do is do what you're already doing which is commenting and you get free steem for the top 10 places.
I think you could probably be in the top 10. It's a great way to build up your account.
Thanks, I will look into it, @janton!
here's the link, Asher is the guy who runs it, abh12345.
Back when we lived in Texas, we actually lived very close to the part of the Chisholm Trail where they drove the cattle across Brushy Creek, quite literally by the "round rock" (a limestone formation) that gave name to the city of Round Rock. Hard to imagine what a tough life that must have been...
=^..^=
howdy back @curatorcat! hey I saw your post from 3 days ago so you are telling me that you went from 50 to 51 in 3 days??!
how in the world did you do that? that's amazing cat person you, I don't even know if you're male or female or just cat! lol.
that's very interesting about the trail, I used to live by Dodge City and there are areas where you can still see the ruts of the trail out in the country, they have markers.
thanks for stopping by curatorcat!
Interesting bits of history all around us @janton! We just have to remember to slow down and look at what's there.
There is definitely a cat attached to this blog, named Shadow, male cat. The blog came about as a result of my Human not wanting to have a bunch of "cute cat photos" on his otherwise more serious philosophical blog. So here I am!
=^..^=
lol! that's brilliant curatorcat!
and it's working!
Wow. I didn't learn any of this is school! I could picture this is my mind the way you wrote this too. Wow.
ok squirrelbait so I ruined your romantic notion of what it would be like to be a cowboy right? sorry I get that a lot.
Interesting, struggling and painful period of the history. It really seems tiring even just by thinking how hard that period of their lives was.
hey there @mobi72! yes sir well it seems horrible to us but people back then were so used to harsh living conditions that it was just a way of life and a job. thanks for commenting!
Different times & stronger peoples.
I couldn't agree more, you're hundred percent correct. There are very few professionals in the news media throughout the world, which are honest with their profession. This ratio can slightly vary from country to country but not too much.
There is a flow & charm in your writings, which is impressive for me. If you're this much new to blogging then you have God gifted talent in blogging and vast experience in dealing with life.
Have wonderful and lovely day.
howdy @mobi72! well I guess I'm glad to hear that the news media over here in the U.S is not the only ones which try to slant it or push a certain narrative to influence the population or to change their minds. Well, not really glad though because that's bad no matter where it takes place.
Do you get most of your news from the internet then?
Thank you sir for your kinds words, it seems to me that if the articles turn out right or good, then it's more of an accident than my skill but if indeed I have any writing gifts then God gets all the glory for that to be sure!
I won't deny that I have at least some wisdom though and try to walk in Godly wisdom. Thank you sir for your kind words!
I kinda like those Pakistani guys.
Yes, I get most of my news from internet, but ...
Mostly all of the newspapers, more or less complete copies of newspapers in soft form, are now available on the net.
I read, written on your blog, anti-aging ... what does it mean?
What's normal weather in Texas?
good to hear back from you so soon mobi72!
well, normal weather for Texas is real hot in June, July and August but then the rest of the year it's beautiful with mild temperatures, in the middle of the winter it rarely get below freezing so snow and ice is rare which is nice not to have to drive in it.
As far as the term anti-aging..that means something that helps slow down the aging process. Like a good skin lotion that keeps your skin from getting wrinkles as fast as without it.
it's big business.
It feels like you're telling me about Karachi's weather, except we have monsoon rains for a few days during these three months.
Sorry I couldn't explain my question properly. Why did you write "anti-aging" in your blog?
howdy back @mobi72! hey the weather in Karachi sounds great if there is only a few days of monsoon, it probably needs the rain anyway right?
As far as the "anti-aging" term being used, why do you want to know?
are you interested in anti-aging protocols or products? I sure am!
what post was it in, one of the Keto posts?
I have seen the old western movies on cattle drives @janton. Nice to know that they were accurate according to your post info. Interesting.
howdy @angimitchell..yes most of them were fairly accurate I think, surprisingly so! usually they're so far off that it has no basis in reality. lol.
thank you!