Introduction to Cowboy
Cowboy, a cattle herder, especially one employed in the range cattle industry. The term usually brings to mind the Old West of the United States, but cowboys exist ever large numbers of cattle are raised. The cowboys of the Argentine pampas are called gauchos. Those of Chile are huasos, and Mexican cowboys are vaqueros. The cowboy of Canada is much the same as the cowboy of the United States.
There are three distinct kinds of cowboys—(1) the cowboy of history; (2) the cowboy of fiction, motion pictures, radio, and television; and (3) the working cowboy of today.
The Cowboy of History
The word cowboy is probably of Irish origin—the English use drover —and the term was commonly used in colonial America.
The Open RangeThe western cowboy appeared with the beginning of the Texas cattle drives in 1868. Longhorn cattle had run wild in Texas during the Civil War. After the war, the building of railways westward opened a market for these cattle, and ranchers began to drive huge herds to "end of track" at Abilene and to other Kansas "cow towns" that grew up along the railroad. Herds were also driven long distances—as far as from Texas to Montana—to find better grazing lands.
A cowboy called the point led the herd and "pointed them north." Flankers prevented animals from straying off to either side of the main herd, and the drag prodded laggards. Each cowboy used several horses, cared for by the hone wrangler. A cock accompanied the cattle drive with a rolling kitchen, the chuck wagon. A day's drive was short, to allow the cattle to graze along the way, and the cowboys would often be on the trail for several months at a time. There was occasional trouble with Indians in early days, and stampedes and river crossings were hazardous, but for the most part cattle drives were monotonous hard work.
As a rule, the cattle grazed on government-owned land. The ranchers had to own only enough land for a homesite and sources of water. Profits were high, and soon most of the Plains region was being used as range-land.
Ranchers' associations organized roundups in which all the cattle in a certain area would be gathered and claimed. Calves were branded (marked with the owner's symbol) in the spring roundup; steers were assembled for sale in the fall roundup. The cowboy's heaviest work came at roundup time in riding, roping, cutting-out (separating wanted animals from the herd), and branding. Cowboys competed with each other in this work, and this competition grew into the rodeo (the Spanish word for roundup). At night, a herder sometimes sang songs to warn the cattle of his approach to keep them from stampeding.
As farmers and sheep raisers moved into the Plains and began to fence their lands, the open range began to disappear. The end of the open-range cattle industry came with the harsh winter of 1886–87, which killed hundreds of thousands of cattle in the northern Plains. Yet the range had been so overstocked that the following spring the market was glutted and prices collapsed.
The Fenced RanchThe men who rebuilt the cattle industry had to buy their land Barbed wire, placed on the market by Joseph F. Glidden in 1874, provided cheap fencing. Fencing made it profitable to import Hereford bulls and other good stock to breed up the herds, and the longhorn's days were numbered. The cowboys' work changed. Some fought rustlers (cattle thieves) occasionally, but most of them spent their time "riding the line" to see that the fences were intact.
The Cowboy's EquipmentThe cowboy derived most of his characteristic equipment from the vaquero of Mexico. The broad-brimmed Stetson "ten-gallon" hat—a late development, one that originated in the Wild West shows that were popular in the 1880's—provided needed shade. The bandanna, a large handkerchief, was worn around the neck to keep out dust. For trousers, the cowboy wore Levi blue jeans. In the Texas brush country of thorns and cactus spines, he wore chaparejos, or chaps, over his jeans; these were leather pants open at the back. High-heeled boots gave him a firm footing in stirrups The Mexican saddle with high pommel aided in roping. The rope was called a lasso, lariat, or riata.
Motion pictures and television have overemphasized the role of the "six-shooter" (a Colt or Smith & Wesson revolver). Not all cowboys were armed. They carried weapons mainly for protection against wild animals. Gunfights were rare, even in drunken brawls in cow towns at "end of trail."
The Legendary Cowboy
The cowboy was first glamorized in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in 1883. The first cowboy hero of fiction was that show's "king of cowboys," Buck Taylor, who was the subject of a series of dime novels by Prentiss Ingraham. However, the book that set the pattern for the cowboy of fiction "Westerns," motion pictures, radio, and television was Owen Wister's The Virginian (1902). Wister's cowboy story mentioned cows only once or twice; later writers rarely mentioned them at all.
The legendary cowboy is represented by the professional rodeo performer and by such actors as "Bronco Billy" Anderson, William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, and Roy Rogers. Most "Westerns," however, are concerned more with sheriffs, cavalrymen, gunmen, gamblers, and outlaws than with cowboys.
The Working Cowboy of Today
Today's working cowboy bears little resemblance to the rodeo or movie cowboy. He dresses more simply, rarely carries a gun, and leads a life no more exciting than that of any other agricultural worker. He may use a horse, but is just as likely to do his work from a jeep or pickup truck. Some use is still made of roping and of the cutting horse, trained to cut out a steer from the herd. On the larger ranches cattle are still rounded up and the calves are still branded.
National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, contains a collection of notable Western art, a museum of the Old West, and three halls of fame—one for rodeo performers, another for stars of Western films and television shows, and one for individuals who have made a significant contribution to the region.