This month�s theme:Cowboys on the Open Range

ContentsFeature Fun pageFamous People Next monthFrom the Attic

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January, 2004

From theProspector

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Sitting high in the saddle,with a tall hat to blockthe harsh sun, the image

of a cowboy riding across anendless plain has been repeatedso often in books, movies, andtelevision that it is familiar tomost of the world. It seems asthough there has never been awestern landscape without acowboy passing through it.But, like much of westernhistory, there is a lot of mythmixed in with the truth. Cow-boys have been around for atleast 150 years, but the era of

the open range, where men onhorseback could move cattlefreely across the land, only lastedfor about thirty years. Although most people associ-ate cowboys with the westernUnited States, their origin ismuch further south. While theBritish were founding colonies onthe Atlantic Coast of NorthAmerica, the Spanish weresettling in what is now Mexico.Early on, they introduced cattleand horses to the grasslands ofCentral America. Managing a

The Open Range

Howdy Prospectors!

I hope everybody had a goodholiday season. I made a NewYear’s resolution to strike itrich this year. Unfortunately,my mule isn’t interested.Apparently, he prefers sitting inour warm office to climbingthrough the frigid mountains.He made a resolution to spendmore time relaxing and lesstime working. Sometimes Iwish I had a horse.

Speaking of horses, thismonth’s issue is about a groupof people who felt more com-fortable in the saddle thenwalking on the ground. Hopeyou enjoy the story of cowboysand the open range.

See you next month.

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large number of animals acrossgreat open spaces was new to theSpanish colonizers and Indianresidents of the country. Thesefirst cowboys, or vaqueros,

needed to develop new skills,equipment, and words to helpthem deal with life on the openrange. Many of the tools that wethink of as being unique to the

western cowboy, likelariats and chaps, actu-ally came from theMexican vaqueros. The western cattlebusiness didn’t reallytake off until the 1860’s.During that time, Texaswas the center of cattleranching. Influenced bythe nearby vaqueros andwith lots of open land,the Texans raised herdsof cattle that wereshipped to the easternstates. This all came toan abrupt end during theCivil War. As part oftheir plan to cut offsupplies to the southernarmies, the Northblocked the cattle fromleaving Texas. Withnowhere to sell theirbeef, the Texas cattle-men watched as theirherds quickly grew andgrew. When the warfinally ended in 1865,the Texas plain wascovered with cattle. Extra cows meantextra money if thebusinessmen could findsomewhere to sell them.Although they continuedto sell their beef to theeastern states, the cattle-men also began to lookto the West. Many gold

miners and pioneers had recentlymoved westward in the hopes offinding a better life. Thesesettlers needed a steady supply offood. If the cattlemen could movetheir cattle to the new territoriesthey could make a large profit. Moving huge herds hundredsor even a thousand miles wasrisky. With no railroads connect-ing the west yet, the cowboys hadto drive the cattle across theplains themselves. A few yearsearlier, this would have beenimpossible. Gigantic herds ofbuffalo and many Indian nationsblocked the path to the westerncities. Now, with the bisonquickly being slaughtered for theirskins and the Native Americansbeing forcefully removed fromtheir land by the military, thecattleman could try their luck atmoving the Texas herds. Moving large herds fromplace to place was called a cattledrive. It was tough work. Cow-boys were in the saddle ten hoursa day, seven days a week, some-times for months. Very cold orvery hot weather along with dustand wind could make life on themove miserable. It was also verydangerous. Accidents, treacher-ous river crossing, and cattlestampedes could seriously injure acowboy who wasn’t careful. One of the destinations forthese great cattle drives wasIdaho. Gold was discovered onthe Clearwater River in 1860bringing a huge number of pros-pectors to the area. As more gold

The Open Range Continued

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Famous People

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Cowboys came from manydifferent backgrounds.Low wages, long hours,

and hard labor made it a jobavailable to almost anyone whowas willing to work.Many early cowboyswere soldiers freshfrom the Civil War, butfreed slaves, Mexicanvaqueros, NativeAmericans, andwomen were alsoemployed in the cattletrade. One of Idaho’smost famous womanranchers was KittyWilkins. Kitty wasn’ta traditional cowboy.Although her familykept a small stock ofcattle on their ranch,the Wilkins weremostly horse dealers.She was born inOregon in 1857 andcame to Boise as ayoung girl. Eventuallyher family bought alarge ranch near thetown of Bruneau where

she learned her trade. Many wild horses roamed freein the nearby Owyhee mountains .Buckaroos employed by theWilkins family would capture

these horses and tame them on theranch. The horses would then besold across the country. Known for her riding skills aswell as her immaculate clothing,

Kitty traveled thenation by train, bring-ing her horses wher-ever they were needed.She was a smartbusinesswoman,sometimes selling asmany as 500 horses onone trip. By the timeshe had taken over thefamily business in thelate 1800’s, Kitty wasknown as the HorseQueen of Idaho. Although she wasvery successful formost of her life, herbusiness fell on hardtimes when the auto-mobile began toreplace the horse as thestandard form oftransportation. KittyWilkins died in 1936in Glenns Ferry at theage of 79.l

Kitty Wilkins, the Horse Queen of Idaho

From the Attic

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In the early days, most cattlecountry in Idaho and the Westwas open range. With abun-

dant grass everywhere, cowboyssimply released their cattle intothe hills and collected them whenthey were ready for slaughter. Ofcourse, with cows roaming every-where, some way was needed toprove which cattle belonged towhich rancher. The way to claimownership of an animal on theopen range was with a brand. Brands are simple,unique designs that havea language all their own.A good brand quicklyidentified cattle but wasdifficult to transform intoanother mark by a rustler. Every spring, thecowboys would ridethrough the hills andplains gathering all of thecattle in the area. Thisevent, called a round-up,was used to mark all ofthe new calves that hadbeen born that year. Oncecorralled, the cattlewould be grouped bybrands. Since newcalves didn’t yet havebrands it was difficult at

first to decide to whom theybelonged. While a young cowwas pulled out of the group, thecowboys would watch the rest ofthe herd. Usually the calf ’smother, worried about her child’ssafety, would begin making noise.The cowboys would brand thenew calf with whatever mark itsmother already had. Brands were applied with along metal rod called a branding

iron. Branding irons would beheated until red hot and thenplaced against the skin of arestrained animal. Because themark was actually burned into thecalf’s skin, it would stay visiblefor the animal’s life. Although brands are still usedtoday, many ranchers use lesspainful methods, like hanging atag from a cow’s ear, to identifytheir cattle. l

Branding Irons

Two Cowboys brand a horse in this picture from the 1800’s

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and silver was found in nearbymountains, the population beganto grow. In 1863 there wereenough people living in the areato make Idaho a territory. In orderto feed all these new residents,cattle were driven north fromTexas to establish herds on theIdaho grasslands. The era of the open rangedid not last long in the West. Asmore people moved from theEast, cattle ranchers, sheep ranch-

ers, and farmers often fought overthe available land and water.Finally, in the 1870’s a newinvention, barbed wire, began tocriss-cross the western landscape.Barbed wire was a simple inven-tion that had a big impact. Inex-pensive to make and easy to stringover miles of open land, the newfences started to change the waycattle moved. Instead of beingable to roam wherever theywanted, the cows were confined

to smaller and smaller areas bythe fences. The days of the openrange were coming to an end. Although many things havechanged in the last hundred years,cattle ranching is still a veryimportant way of life for manyresidents of Idaho. Today’srancher is a cowboy and a wholelot more. Part businessman, partveterinarian, and part land man-ager, a cattleman or woman has avery complex and difficult job.l

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The Fun Page

Brands have a language all their own. A cowboy had to learn this new language so he could identify the ownersof the cattle he came across on the range. Letters, numbers, shapes, and pictures were all used to distinguishdifferent ranches. Below is a simple key of a few of the symbols used for brands. Take a look at the key andthen see if you can figure out the mystery brands on the next page. Careful, they get harder as they go on.

Brands are always read from left to right, top to bottom, or outside to inside. For example an X inside a square is read as “square X” not “X square”.

Answers 1. Circle Y 2. Rocking Double K 3. Bar Crazy A 4. Flying Triangle 5. Double Diamond X

6. Triple tumbling M 7. Rocking Chair 8. Swinging Double J 9. Diamond Spur 10. Lazy Dollar

11. Flying Heart A 12. Broken Arrow

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Next Month�s Activities

Now it’s your turn prospectors. We’ve given you agood introduction to

cowboy culture in Idaho, butthere’s a lot more information outthere. Pick from one ofthe activities below ormake up your ownproject about the openrange. We’ll take someof your best work andprint it in next month’smagazine. Rememberto include your name,school and town whereyou are from, and thename of your prospectorchapter.

Interview a Rancher:Many of you prospec-tors live in areas of thestate where cattleranching is important.In fact, some of youmight be members of acattle ranching family.Find a neighbor, friend,or family member whohas worked on a cattle ranch andinterview him or her for ournewsletter. How long has theperson been ranching? When didhe or she learn to ride a horse?Think up some good questionsand report back to us next month.

Your Own Brand: Cowboys usebrands to prove ownership of theircows and horses. Each brand hasa distinct shape that identifies aspecific ranch. Sometimes the

brands are simple, with just therancher’s initials, and sometimesmore complex, with a picture thatrepresents an object important tothe ranch. Pretend that you own alarge cattle ranch. Design anddraw a brand to represent your

home. Then write a few sen-tences explaining why you chosethe pictures and letters in yourbrand.

Home on the Range: Atnight, there wasn’t muchcowboys on the open rangecould do for entertainment.One of the ways they relaxedafter a long day in the saddlewas to sing songs and playmusic. Write a short songabout life on the open rangeand share it with the rest ofus.

Send it your work by Feb13th, 2004 to

Prospector ClubLucky NoahIdaho State HistoricalMuseum610 North Julia Davis DriveBoise, ID 83702

Or email it to us atkzwolfer@ishs.state.id.us

Resources for Teachers

Books

Byers, ChesterCowboy Roping and Rope TricksDover, 1966Your guide to learning lariat tricks

Ducan, EmrichThe Cowboy’s Own Brand BookDover, 1995An introduction to the language of cattle brands

Forbis, WilliamThe Old West-The CowboysTime-Life Books, 1973A great overview of the history of the cowboy

McLoughlin, DenisWild and Woolly-An Encyclopedia of the Old WestDoubleday and Company, 1975An extensive encyclopedia of the old west

Penson-Ward, BettyIdaho Women in History, Volume 1Legendary Publishing Company, 1991A brief biography of Kitty Wilkins and other impor-tant Idaho women

Web Sites

The Cowboy Hall of Famehttp://www.cowboyhalloffame.org/diamondr/index.htmlAn interactive kid’s site Sponsored by the Cowboy Hallof Fame in Oklahoma

The West-Cowboyshttp://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/five/cowboys.htmA short review of cowboys based on a PBS series on theWest

The First Cowboyshttp://www.unm.edu/~gabbriel/An extensive look at Mexican vaqueros.

Brandinghttp://www.barbwiremuseum.com/cattlebrandhistory.htmA short history of cattle brands

Library of Congress-Cowboyshttp://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/sh/cowboyAn overview of cowboy culture with audio and videoclips

Lesson Plan

Goal of Lesson It is often difficult to separate historic myth fromhistoric fact. Most children spend more time withmass media then they do with history books.Consequently, they adapt a “Hollywood” view ofhistory. One of the places that this evident is inthe perception of cowboys and the Old West. Inthis lesson, students will learn to recognize thedifference between cowboy fact and cowboyfiction.

InventoryCopies of dime store fiction covers, paper, draw-ing supplies (crayons, colored pencils, markers).

Activity1) By the 4th grade, most children have a precon-ceived notion of what cowboy culture was like inthe old west. Start by brainstorming a descriptionof what a cowboy and his lifestyle were like backin the 1800’s. Make a list on the board of theideas and concepts the students come up with.Some of these ideas will certainly be valid, butinevitably, others will be tainted by television andmovies.

2) Have the students read this month’s newsletter.

3) Now, ask them if their perception of the cow-boy has changed. Explain to them that sometimesour view of history is tainted by myth andstorytelling. Make a new list on the board ofrealistic aspects of a cowboy’s life that weremissed in the other brainstorming activity. Helpthe children with some leading questions to getthem started (examples: Were the cowboys alwaysfighting with Indians? Did cowboys settle argu-ments with gunfights?). Some things you mightcome up with are:

n Cowboys worked very hard for low wages (on the trail they might only get 4-5 hours sleep a night)nCowboys had very diverse backgrounds (Mexi- cans, African Americans, Native Americans, and

occasionally women all worked on the open range)nCowboys were often very young (some of them no more than teenagers)nCowboys were often uneducated and possibly illiteratenAccidents (like being dragged by a horse or trampled by a cow) and sickness were more likely to hurt a cowboy than gunfights or IndiansnA cowboy’s lifestyle was very dirty and dustynBeing very poor, most cowboy’s couldn’t afford their own horse, let alone fancy boots, hats, and clothes.

4) Discuss how historical myths are made. Books,television, and movies have a very strong influ-ence on how we perceive the past. Most of thetime, the truth does not make for an exciting“story.” One of the earliest historical distortionscame in the form of the dime paperback. Thesebooks, later reinvented as pulp westerns in the1940’s, featured larger-than-life characters andoften ridiculous plots. These mass produced,inexpensive books went a long way in makingmyth out of history in the west.

5) Pass out copies of the dime store and pulpcovers. Ask the students if these books realisti-cally portray the lives of the cowboys. Whatwould a cover look like that told the truth aboutthe West? Would it feature a cowboy mending hisclothes because they have worn out and he doesn’thave money for new ones? Should it show some-one getting injured falling off his horse? Should itfeature vaqueros? Using the old covers as aguide, have the student create covers for imagi-nary books telling the truth about the cowboys inthe old west. Encourage them to be creative andhumorous, creating titles that fit the historic truthrather than myth (examples: The Empty PocketKid-Adventures of an Underpaid Cowpoke orTales of the Stinky Boot-How One Cowboy WentThree Months Without a Bath).