A Western Legend is Born

Charles Russell, author of the Trails Plowed Under, wrote about a western icon:
"Ma," (says the eastern girl) "do cowboys eat grass?"  "No dear," says the old lady, "they're part human."  I don't know but the old gal had 'em sized up right.  If they are human, they're a separate species.  I'm talkin' about the old-time ones, before the country's strung with wire...an' a cowpuncher's home was big.  It wasn't where he took his hat off, but where he spread his blankets...He don't need no iron hoss, but covers his country on one that eats grass an' wear hair."

His description of the iconic western cowboy is the stuff of legends.  During the last part of the 19th century, one of the greatest epics of the West was born - the cowboy, vigorous, hard-riding, soft-spoken.  After the Civil War, the trail drives north from Texas ended in huge cattle companies and vast tracts of land guarded by the gunman.  It lasted until the 1890s leaving behind the legend of the cowboy, gambler, lawmen and  outlaw.

In the late 1870s and early 1880s, a man on horseback could crisscross the Great Plains of North America, from Mexico to Canada, from Kansas to the Rockies, and never be out of sight of cattle.  In an area half the size of Europe there were only a scattering of communities with about 5,000 residents.  It was a world of steers and grasslands.  Where buffalo once roamed free, the Texan longhorns were now king. 

The railroad played its part in providing ranchers with a means of shipping their cattle east for a profit.  The trails sprang up overnight as the railroad moved west.  Millions of cattle, fattened by the grasslands, were destined for Chicago and Kansas City by rail.

Next time...The Early Cattle Years
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On June 6, 1833, President Andrew Jackson is the first president to ride the Iron Horse.