The American Cowboy Chronicles Old West Myths & Legends: The Honest Truth

By Thomas Correa

This book is about the real Old West. The research presented here comes from what I've found during my more than forty-five years of researching American history, but especially what I've learned in regards to the other side of the myths and legends of the Old West. In 2010, I started a blog, The American Cowboy Chronicles, to share what I've learned and celebrate the virtues of America. My articles on the Old West have never been meant to dispel the myths or attack legends but to simply explain what I've found after taking a hard look, an honest look, an objective look, at the evidence that's available. Since evidence proves or disproves what we've all been told about the Old West by Hollywood and writers who are not objective researchers, this is my attempt at taking a fresh look at Wyatt Earp, Tom Horn, and others. But mostly, this book is about why the American Cowboy became America's quintessential role model. This book looks at why the American Cowboy represents American toughness, independence, and resilience to the rest of the World.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645842859

Book preview

The Golden Age of the American Cowboy

Since starting The American Cowboy Chronicles, I’ve received a lot of mail about my research into the Old West. Of the many people who have visited my blog, many have asked about the heyday of the American cowboy. They want to know about that Golden Age when the American cowboy became a folk hero, the half-real, half-myth symbol of the Old West, a symbol of courage and strength, of fairness and hard work, the ideal of the American spirit.

Thinking about this, taking an honest look at how things were back then, we should first remember that above all else, the American cowboy was a hardworking man. He worked long hours doing things that needed to be done when they needed doing. Things that others couldn’t do. Things that many even then looked at with awe and wonder. Things such as moving cattle through untamed lands, lightning storms, against the elements and desperadoes, all things that many saw as adventurous, dangerous, and courageous.

The cowboy of both myth and reality had his beginnings in what we call the Old West right after the Civil War in 1866, when the nation was still in shambles. While the first American cowboys were those in Florida whose roots we can trace to the first Spanish explorers, it was from 1866 to 1886 that the American cowboy had his golden age. And though it was only a short twenty years, it was the era of the great cattle drives, the open range, and the struggle to feed a nation ravaged by war. It was a time that changed America forever while giving us a purely American identity for the rest of the world to envy.

Before the end of the Civil War, most ranches were primarily small family operations where cattle were raised for their own needs. Granted, they sold off their surplus meat and hides locally, but there really wasn’t a larger market for hides, horns, hooves, and tallow that we know became associated with manufacturing processes that came about later.

Also prior to the mid-1860s, surprising as it might sound, there was little demand for beef. But with the expansion of the meatpacking industry, the availability of the railroad, and the demand for beef in the East, by 1866 cattle were being sold for as much as $40 a head instead of $2 a head in Texas. This made cattle extremely profitable. Texas contained vast herds of free-ranging cattle available for free to anyone who could round them up and get them to market.

Ranchers learned very quickly that cattle drives had to strike a balance between speed and trying to maintain the weight of their cattle. As my grandfather told me when I was just a kid trying to herd cattle too fast, Walk them! We sell them by the pound!

While ranchers back in the day knew that cattle could be driven as far as twenty-five miles in a single day, they also knew that cattle would lose too much weight doing so. That would make it hard to sell them when they reached the end of the trail because they wouldn’t look worth buying. And just as my own grandfather told me, when broken down as to how much they were selling them per head, ranchers sold them by the pound.

Because of the concern for the condition and weight of the cattle they were delivering, cattle were driven shorter distances of twelve to fifteen miles per day, then allowed to rest and graze both at midday and at night. This meant a herd that traveled for two months would still maintain a healthy weight and look good upon arrival. At the end of a typical day on the trail, the herd might have moved fifteen miles, but this too depended on the terrain, weather conditions, and the rivers that needed to be crossed.

Back in those days, a single herd numbered about three thousand head. To move such a herd, a rancher needed a crew of at least ten to twelve cowboys. Part of the drive that people don’t usually think about was the remuda of horses that were needed to make the drive. Fact is, depending on the outfit, there were three to four horses, in some outfits as many as six horses, per cowboy on the trail. Cowboys were known to switch out horses two to three times a day. This meant there were a lot of horses included in the drive.

Duties along the Trail

At the start of the cattle drive, cowboys would have to gather all their equipment together and report to the trail boss. The trail boss ran the entire operation.

The drive would not begin all at once. Usually the steers would be left to graze in the morning and then slowly led down the trail. This type of system of grazing and driving would be used to get the cattle used to the drive. After a few days of this, the herd would be accustomed to the routine and automatically begin to follow the lead steers who would be led by cowboys riding point. The trail boss was responsible for picking the dominant steers to act as the leads for the herd.

During the drives, cowboys worked in shifts to keep an eye on the cattle twenty-four hours a day. The fear of stampedes and cattle rustlers was always a present danger. Cowboys would sing and even whistle along the drive. This was to keep the herd calm while also setting a steady pace. Cowboys were known to make up songs and whistle to the beat of their horse’s hooves. Not a hurried pace, but steady so that the cattle wouldn’t lose weight. Those on the trail did a lot more when we take a look at the duties of each specific job needed to move a herd along the trail.

As in life in general, everyone along the trail had a boss. While a rancher worked for his family to keep his ranch afloat, the trail boss worked for the rancher. Some ranchers were also the trail boss, but in many cases, the trail boss was chosen by a rancher. In all cases, a trail boss was chosen because he had previous experience with trail drives. It was a huge responsibility as the trail boss was responsible for the entire operation, the cowboys, cattle, horses, chuck, everyone, while on the trail. As stated before, he was responsible for selecting the dominant steers to act as leads for the herd, for locating water, grass, and a good trail for cattle. A great trail boss knew the range and knew it well. Certainly better than most.

Besides maintaining discipline, the trail boss kept the peace between the cowboys. He also made sure everyone did their jobs. He was the man who handled all money transactions whether it involved placing orders for supplies or paying the appropriate tolls. He was the boss. His pay was $90 a month but could be as high as $125 if a bonus for getting the herd in on time and looking great was agreed upon.

The point man, sometimes two, was the most honored post on the drive. These cowboys would determine the direction of the drive. He was looked to for his reliability and ability to point the lead steers in the right direction. He was the man who set the pace for the drive. His pay was $30 to $40 a month.

Swing riders had to know how to ride a horse better than most, and previous experience with trail drives was a big help. They rode a third of the way back from the front of the herd as it was moving down the trail and back again while moving. They made sure the herd didn’t spread out too far. Their pay was $30 to $40 a month.

Flank riders also needed to know how to ride a horse, and they too needed previous experience with trail drives. Their main job was to cut in cattle that had gotten out of the herd. They would make sure that cattle did not wander too far away from the main herd. They rode about two-thirds of the way back from the front of the herd on the trail and then back again while the herd was moving. Their pay was $30 to $40 a month.

Drag riders were your entry-level cowboys on the drive. These were the newbies who had everything to learn and ate dust doing it. They had to be willing to work hard and endure dust and dirt kicked up by the cattle and riders ahead of them. They were assigned to ride at the back of the herd on the trail to make sure that the cattle stayed with the herd. They had to be able to push slower cattle forward. Riding drag was not a fun job, but it was where all the inexperienced hands started after moving up from horse wrangler. Their pay was $30 to $40 a month.

The horse wrangler was another entry-level hand. While most all cowboys were generally very young, mostly teenagers or in their early twenties, almost all were certainly under 30. As for backgrounds, most all were poor and willing to work the sixteen to eighteen hours a day, seven days a week on the drive for a dollar a day and an adventure like no other. The horse wrangler was generally a young boy who wanted to be a cowboy. He was said to be willing to learn and work hard. He rounded up the extra horses and got them into a rope corral several times during the day. He kept the horses together and made sure they were eating until it was time for a cowboy to change mounts. He made sure that those ridden hard were given extra grain, usually COB, which as most know is corn, oats, and barley. He also kept saddle horses from straying too far and helped the cook, which included gathering wood and harnessing the teams.

A young wrangler would learn different ways of catching horses in the remuda because most horse would dodge anyone’s attempts to rope them. This meant a young horse wrangler would learn one of the most important parts of being a skilled cowboy, how to rope. Catching mounts to get them ready for a change meant constantly working on one’s rope-handling skills. Many used what was known as a smear, or hoolihan throw. Ropers had different throws for different purposes, and the horse wrangler would learn most on his first drive. His pay was $25 a month.

The hoolihan throw is a fast-overhand throw with an open loop, rather than a side or spinning throw, which required more room to execute. The hoolihan catch is performed quickly and in a tight area. It was one that many a young wrangler would learn first.

As for the chuck wagon cook, it’s said that he was usually a former cowboy who was either too old for the more difficult work or had been hurt too many times. His duties were more than simply knowing how to drive a wagon. He had to be able to move the chuck wagon two times a day, ten to fifteen miles each time, and prepare meals with limited resources to cook for the men.

The cook rose at 3:00 a.m. and had breakfast ready when he woke the cowboys. He prepared three meals a day out of the back of a wagon and served them on time. While he was not expected to help with the cattle or any of the other trail jobs, he was expected to have some experience and knowledge of medical techniques because he served as the drive’s doctor.

Breakfast was usually sourdough biscuits, white gravy, sowbelly, and black coffee. Dinner, what many of us call lunch or noon chow, was sowbelly, black coffee, sourdough biscuits, white gravy, and maybe some pickles. Supper was black coffee, sowbelly, beans or white gravy, and sourdough biscuits. While some might not know, sowbelly is salt pork.

Of course, there was a son-of-a-gun stew, which was served on the trail from time to time. It was made of the brains; the sweetbreads, which is the pancreas or thymus; and choice pieces of a freshly killed calf. It was a rarity to see on the trail since cattle was not consumed on the trail. Fact is, cattle meant money to the owner. So subsequently, cowhands did not butcher a cow or a calf for chow.

By the way, something that folks might not realize is that all the cowboys would tie up their bed rolls and throw them in the chuckwagon before breakfast. After breakfast, they’d take their positions while the trail boss and the chuck wagon cook would ride perhaps two or three miles ahead of the herd. This would allow the trail boss time to look for a suitable location with good grass and water for the noon rest. Stopping at the end of the day meant the herd needed to be bedded down. Shift were set up, and watches were scheduled throughout the night. A cowboy would have to stand a watch that might be two to four hours long.

At night, everyone wanted a quiet and calm herd. The cowboys would slowly circle the herd to tighten the cattle together, this was so they weren’t spread out and they’d be less apt to wonder off in the dark. As they did during the day, cowboys were known to sing to them to keep them calm. Above all, no one wanted anything that would rile the herd. The fear of stampedes and cattle rustlers was always a present danger, but that was especially true at night. A single spooked steer could ignite a stampede. Fact is, the possibility of being caught up in a stampede would be the most dangerous thing that could happen to a cowboy on a cattle drive.

While stampedes were likely to occur at night, they would happen in an instant. They were set off by a sudden crack of thunder, some natural predator such as a nearby mountain lion, and of course among other things, the sound of some unknown noise coming for the dark prairie. Stampedes caused the drive to lose valuable time, but they could be a deadly affair for a cowboy. More than one cowboy was trampled to death during a stampede. No, it wasn’t unusual for a horse to step into a prairie dog hole or rut and a cowboy hitting the ground during a stampede in the dark. Of course, even in the daylight, stampedes took place. As with the crack of thunder at night, a noise of something out of the ordinary could set them off. And no, it wasn’t unusual for an Indian to snap a blanket to spook a herd. Dangerous or not, stampedes meant that brave and hungry Indians may try to cut out a few cattle for themselves.

While a cattle drive was tough and dangerous work, and with the constant threats from outlaws and Indians and stampedes, it’s said the trail boss was under a lot of tension. The cowboys themselves became weary from the hard riding and lack of sleep. During the drive, the trail boss was the law. There were rules to follow, and they were known before the trail drive ever started. Breaking the rules would be dealt with, no exceptions. And indeed, murder of a fellow cowboy could result in a hanging right on the spot.

Cowboys during the drive followed the rules and regulations to the letter. Some ranchers forbid gambling during a drive because they saw it as something that created problems and ill will. But let’s keep in mind, these were mostly young men and not older adults as the movies depict. Though their pockets were empty, they did find time to play a game or two of poker if time allowed and the herd was content. It was not unheard of for them to play using match sticks as chips. We need to remember, they didn’t get paid the entire two months or more of the drive. They would not get paid until the end of the drive.

Hitting Town after the Drive

After the long cattle drive, all celebrations were at trail’s end. Once the trail drive ended, the cowboys would be paid, and they would be ready to let off steam and spend some money. And depending on the length of the trail drive, a cowboy might have anywhere from $80 to $90 in his pocket when paid. Friends, that’s the equivalent of having about $2,100 in your pocket in 2017 dollars.

So yes, with the arrival of cattle now in the stockyards and the cowboys with such money in their pockets, cow towns boomed between 1866 and 1890 as railroads reached towns suitable for gathering and shipping cattle. History tells us the first was Abilene, Kansas. Other towns in Kansas included Wichita, Ellsworth, Dodge City, and Caldwell.

In the 1880s, Dodge City boasted of being the Cowboy Capital of the World. And while Abilene, Wichita, Ellsworth, Dodge City, and Caldwell were the towns that received the major portion of the booming cattle trade, other Kansas cow towns—such as Baxter Springs, Newton, Hunnewell, Great Bend, Hays, and Junction City—all were briefly successful. These lesser-known towns such as Hunnewell should not be discounted. In the mid-1880s, Hunnewell, which sits on the Kansas-Oklahoma border in Sumner County, consisted of one hotel, a couple of stores, a barbershop, two dance halls, and about nine saloons. Hunnewell is said to have seen more shootings than what was ever seen in Dodge City, even though Dodge City had a reputation of having more gunman than any other Kansas cow town at one time or another.

There were several merchants, saloons, and gambling halls, conmen, prostitutes, and others all more than willing to relieve the young cowboy of his newfound wealth. No, unlike the movies, cowboys did not hit the saloons first. In fact, because of the problems with lice on the trail, they got haircuts and shaves and baths before doing almost anything else. They bought new clothes because they wore their clothes into rags in many cases, a new Stetson, and new boots. They bought replacement gear such as new saddles, headstalls, bits, chaps. And of course, cowboys were also known to buy their favorite horse from the trail boss himself if the cowboy was moving on. Yes, some would return with the trail boss, while other cowboys went on their way.

The merchants who sold goods were the businesses which made huge profits because of the cattle drives. As for drinking and such, yes, they drank and sought out soiled doves. And of course, brothels and gambling-halls flourished in towns that were wide open twenty-four hours a day.

As for Violence in the Cow Towns

As for violence and drunkenness, there was that. In fact, that was especially true since most were mere boys and unaccustomed to liquor of any sort. Of the drunken brawls, towns benefited from the fines. Of course, lawmen who got a cut from the fines collected benefited as well. And no, it was not unusual for a town lawman to buffalo a cowboy, hit him upside the head with the butt of his pistol, and throw him in jail just because he wanted to make more money in fines. In many cases, cowboys hadn’t broken any laws but were in fact buffaloed and hauled off to jail simply because a crooked lawman wanted to make more money.

As for the number of killings? If one believes Hollywood, cowboys killed all sorts of innocent people all over the West. Fact is, there were only a small number of killings actually associated with cowboys. And that, well, that’s especially true when compared to what was going on in eastern cities, which was where the real violence was taking place in the late 1800s.

Fact is, while the cowboy lived life on his own terms and in many cases by his own wits, except for a cowboy having a rifle to protect himself from wild animals, outlaws, and Indians, handguns were not a piece of equipment seen as frequently as seen in Hollywood films. It’s said one rancher summed it up when he pointed out that an unarmed man would not be challenged to a gunfight.

It’s true, the Code of the West was such that it forbids firing on an unarmed man. While that’s not to say that unarmed people weren’t killed, that’s one reason that in so many instances in the Old West we read about people telling another to go get armed, go get heeled. As for trail-bosses, many were known to warn their hands about how the act of carrying six-shooters could lead to unwanted trouble. As a result, believe it or not, contrary to what Hollywood and novels want to say, more cowboys walked around unarmed than armed.

And if the cattle towns of Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell, were such deadly places because of cowboys, then why is it that from the years 1870 to 1885, a fifteen-year span, there were only a total of forty-five homicides combined. That equates to a rate of approximately one murder per one hundred thousand residents per year. And by the way, sixteen of those forty-five homicides were committed by duly authorized lawmen.

Another thing, other than Ellsworth in 1873 and Dodge City in 1876, none of the other cow towns ever had as many as five killings in any one-year period. Abilene, Kansas, supposedly one of the wildest of the cow towns, did not have a single person killed in 1869 and 1870. That was at the beginning of the heyday of the cattle drives.

In a town like Dodge City, it’s said that if local women were spoken to in the wrong way by a drunken cowboy, that cowboy would face quick punishment. Fact is, letting off steam at the end of a drive would be more along the lines of telling stories, recalling the adventure, and doing some bragging and drinking rather than breaking the law.

While things were rowdy, they were very rarely deadly. Of course, that’s not to say that shootings didn’t happen. But more so, it was because of the unsavory folks also attracted to boomtowns. Remember that the influx of cattle money attracted all sorts of parasites of society, as well as con artists, gamblers, prostitutes, and outlaws. The same things took place in the gold mining camps and towns in California in the 1850s and in the silver mining camps and towns in Nevada and Arizona in the 1870s and ’80s.

Of course, when a shooting did happen, the eastern newspapers sensationalized it to support the lies printed in the dime novels. In general, shootings in cow towns were not nearly as frequent and deadly as the Hollywood movies would have us believe. But where is the surprise there? Hollywood has been very unfair in their depiction of cowboys for a long time.

Camaraderie on the Trail

In the Old West, especially during the time of the cattle drives, they were very young and very hardworking. They were very honest and knew that there were consequences for not being that way. Most were Christian, and on the trail, cowboys were known to conduct what we today call cowboy church on the trail drives. On the overall, they did in fact get along with just about everyone both on the trail and in towns.

This is especially true since, contrary to Hollywood, they were not all white or racists. In fact, it’s said that one out of every four cowboys was black, and one out of every four were said to be Mexican. And yes, there were even Indian cowboys. Of the white cowboys, those of European descent, many were from various countries. So no, the white cowboys shouldn’t be lumped together. Fact is, those white cowboys were English, Irish, French, German, Italian, Basque, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Norwegian, Slavic, Russian, and other nationalities.

In many cases, these were not third- or fourth-generation Americans. Many came from families who were fairly recent arrivals. Many came from families who still remembered how they didn’t always get along in Europe. One can compare their histories in Europe to how the Sioux and the Pawnee didn’t get along in North America.

The trail boss made sure they got along if there were any problems. And no, he didn’t take any guff from anyone. He was not above cutting a man out of his crew to keep harmony on the long, arduous drive. The fact is that they worked and lived together, and they had a bond that we do not see in Hollywood movies. It was a camaraderie built on respect for each other’s abilities to cowboy. Each man had to prove his worth or not be there.

One’s skin color and ancestry did not matter. What mattered along the trail was a cowboy’s ability to cowboy. What mattered was his skill with horses and cattle and not turn tail in the face of adversity. What mattered was a cowboy’s ability to endure the hardship and the challenge and prevail. On the trail, each man, no matter his background, was measured by what he could do and his character.

Some say the cattle drives were manned with lowlifes and ruffians, outlaws on the run and killers, no-goods and shirkers, on the trail. That’s all Hollywood, because that’s not real. Fact is, a trail boss picked his crew carefully for their experience and ability to get along with others. In return, his crew knew that he would not put up with any sort of wrong behavior. All the hands knew that if they stepped out of line, they’d be sent packing.

Start of the Cowboy Code

The fact is that an unwritten code was forming at the time. That code was evolving to reflect the honest and forthright cowboy that did not abide by thieving or rustling, that did not shirk his duties, that was respectful and held to Christian values.

Folks reading this should remember that that was the Victorian era. The way people looked at life at the time was what started the cowboy code. For example, to give you an idea of how men were expected to conduct themselves back in the day, read what Rules of Etiquette and Home Culture wrote in 1886:

It is the duty of a gentleman to know how to ride, to shoot, to fence, to box, to swim, to row and to dance. He should be graceful. If attacked by ruffians, a man should be able to defend himself, and also to defend women from their insults.

Over time, cowboys developed a personal code and culture of their own. I believe cowboys lived a life of frontiersman with Victorian era values and sense of manners, bravery and chivalry and commitment, all blended together with American individuality. Along with this, since they still did extremely dangerous work, they held steadfast to their tradition of self-dependence and individualism. Yes, this is where we find American individualism in the truest sense of the term.

They placed enormous value on personal honesty, pride, integrity, loyalty, trust, respect, hard work, and morals. These were personal attributes that money could not buy. This was the beginnings of what we know today as the cowboy culture, what some today call the cowboy way.

All in all, it is estimated that millions of head of cattle were herded from Texas to railheads in Kansas for shipments to stockyards in Chicago and all points East during those years. Friends, that’s quite a feat. Fact is that’s an incredible number even by anyone’s standards. Those who moved those incredible herds lived by a code that speaks to the Golden Rule, Christian values, and riding for the brand.

The End of an Era

It’s said that barbed wire ended the era of the cattle drives while at the same time put a lot of cowboys out of work. Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, received a patent in 1874 for the modern invention after he made his own modifications to previous versions of barbed wire. And while his version of barbed wire really didn’t impact the West until the early 1880s, barbed wire was all about restraining cattle. Wire fences were cheaper and easier to erect than their alternatives. One such alternative was Osage orange, which is said to be a thorny bush which is also said to be extremely time-consuming to transplant and grow where you want it.

Here’s another little bit of trivia for you. Have you ever noticed those wood posts for barbed wire fences in places where wood is scarce? Well, it’s said that the Osage orange later became the wood used in making barb wire fence posts.

By the 1890s, barbed wire was the standard in the northern plains. And by then the railroads had expanded to cover most of the nation, so that meant that meatpacking plants could be built closer to major ranching areas. This made the long cattle drives from Texas to the railheads in Kansas completely unnecessary. With barbed wire, the age of the open range and cattle drives was gone.

Now that’s not to say that there weren’t smaller cattle drives. In fact, smaller cattle drives continued for years even into the 1950s, when modern cattle trucks started taking over the job of transporting beef from the ranch to the slaughterhouse or stockyards. And today, there are even places where big ranches move pretty big herds.

What Ended the Golden Age?

There are those who say the heyday of the cowboy ended because of barbed wire and the demise of the open range. But was it all because of the invention of barbed wire, the loss of open range, the railroad, the availability of closer meatpacking plants? I believe that they were all contributing factors to the end of the heyday of the cowboy, but I also believe that the real end came because of weather and economics.

Fact is, by 1883, there was a horrible prolonged draught that ruined what grass was available. And for the next few years, that draught plagued the West. To add to that, the demand for beef fell off and so did market prices. This happened all while there was a glut of cattle. Which of course meant that the cattle business became a lot less profitable. Soon many ranches went under or sold out to eastern corporations.

Then the death knell rang during the winter of 1886 into 1887. It is called the Big Die-Up because it was such a severe winter that cattle and cowboys died in the freezing temperatures. In November of 1886, it started to snow. It kept snowing right into the new year without a break. It’s said that things were bad with gale-force winds and temperatures of fifty degrees below zero. Then, it’s said things got worse when rain fell.

The rain was followed by a massive freeze that is said to have virtually sealed what little grass there was beneath a very thick layer of snow and ice said to be absolutely impenetrable. The result was cattle died of exposure and starvation. Their frozen carcasses littered the plains and filled the draws.

Without so many cattle, there was no need for so many cowboys. The golden age of the young cowboy was gone. But they weren’t out by a long shot. While some moved on to other things, including rustling, many adapted to the new world around them and tried their hand at working for smaller ranches where mending fences and tending to small herds was the norm.

During that period, many a cowboy ended up working for day wages and chuck when they could find it. But after the freeze, though not the same, it wasn’t too long that ranching and the need for beef made a comeback. Over time, ranches multiplied all over the developing West. And while the numbers of cowboys were not that of before 1886, those small ranches kept several cowboys employed. Some say cowboys became somewhat more settled than before.

It was all in all a low-paying job. The average cowboy earned about a dollar a day plus food and board. No, the pay was not the greatest. That in itself may be the reason that cowboys ranked low on the social ladder of the period. But then again, while there were those young men who did hire on for the drives and left to do other things when the drives were over, there were also those who weren’t there just for the money. Many did it for the life and the freedom. Many stayed cowboys and created part of the folklore that lives on today.

You see, while cowboys knew darn well that the money was never great, they remained cowboys for the life and the freedom that they knew they couldn’t find anywhere else. And that, well, that’s part of what Americans want, to live a life where one may still work for another yet still have freedom.

Why Is the Period Called the Golden Age of the Cowboy?

Well, the period between 1866 and 1886 cemented the image of the American cowboy as one of courage and hard work, or tirelessness and loyalty to the brand and each other, of individualism and perseverance, of what one person once called spirited horsemen living dangerous lives. They faced lightning and flash floods, draught, and the most horrible winters on record. They faced stampedes, rattlesnakes, outlaws, Indians, and slept under the stars on the dying frontier.

Yes, indeed, they worked the cattle drives and fought the worse of nature’s elements, thieving outlaws, and marauding Indians in the Old West. They had to adapt and overcome. And no, not everyone could do what they did.

The men who lived the life became known as cowboys. Their life carried an appeal