Cattle rustling Southern style

We’ve all seen cattle drives in the movies and on television. We understand that the cattlemen herding the animals needed a lot of grit and guts to move hard headed animals to and from their destinations.  So, I find it interesting that one of the greatest feats of cowboying occurred here in Virginia. What’s that you say? Virginia? Wait, that’s not out west. When did this happen?

Believe it or not, this little know bit of herd stealing, happened in Petersburg, Virginia  in the year of 1864. Many can relate that things for the south were not going well. Petersburg was ringed by a series of trenches stretching thirty miles from Richmond that didn’t allow a mosquito to fly over without being bombarded by Union fire. The people and the Confederate army were a hungry lot. But, just beyond the trenches, they could hear them. 3,000 head of cattle whose sole purpose was to feed the Union Army.

A general by the name of Wade Hamilton hatched an incredible idea. If the beef was there, he would just go get them. Known for his behind the scene raids, Hamilton and 3,000 of his ‘Legions’ or cavalry riders planned a bold move to skirt past Grant and  the 120 men who guarded the legendary Union commander. Armed with Sheppard herding dogs and some reputable Texas cattle thieves, they began their move on September 14^th. 

                                                          From the Library of Congress

They moved along Boydton Plank Road swinging east to Stony Creek Station and finally over Blackwater Creek were they rebuilt the burned bridge and moved their forces across. At 5 a.m. they attacked. Union forces were in complete surprise and even armed with new Henry repeaters they were unprepared for the attack.

They drove the cattle across the bridge stopping to dismantle it and kept them moving. When reaching Petersburg, 2,487 cattle were counted for. Only ten of Hamilton’s Legions had lost their lives and 47 were wounded. Months afterward, the confederates taunted the Union troops by offering them beefsteaks or simply mooing.

Today, you can visit near where the drive took place at Pamplin Historic Park. Or if you are lucky enough to catch the old 1966 movie Alvaraz Kelly based loosely on this story.

Visit Pamplin Historic Park using this link. http://pamplinpark.org/

Get along little doggies.

Last month, we talked about cattle drives in general. It was no easy feat to drive  2000 to 3000 cows up from Texas to the rail heads and beyond. Unlike what we see on television, cattle do not bunch up. They string out one behind the other. With that said, the length of a 1000 head herd could stretch for more than two miles. Walking along, the trip to Kansas could take 25 to 100 days.

The trail wasn't easy. There were swollen rivers, droughts, Native Americans who took offense at the cattle moving through their lands. The average miles covered were between 10 to 15 miles each day. With the length of the cattle drive, cowboys or drovers, needed a language all their own. So they developed hand signals that has been adapted from the Plain Indians.

Drovers brought their own unique skills and grades of talent to the drive. The best drovers were placed as "pointers".  A pointer worked at the head of the herd. Less talented drovers were assigned positions at the flank, swing positions and the dreaded drag - riders at the back of the herd. Poor guys they ate the dirt churned by the hooves of the cattle moving before them. This is where we bless the cowboy's bandana. It could  be pulled up over the nose to filter the dust and dirt at the heels of the herd.

 

 For those of you writing western romance, keep in mind these terms when describing trail drives

A drover. The term was used between 1870 and 1880. It references a working cowboy who trails the herd

Lead Riders. Cowboys who ride on either side of the lead steers and push them in the right direction. The herd will follow. Sometimes, lead steers were used over and over because they were easy to direct.

Point Rider. Cowboy at the front of the herd behind the trail boss. They were the leads to which the cowboys push the steers to follow. 

Flank Riders. Cowboys positioned on either side of the herd. Their job is to keep the herd bunched and tight, no strays. 

Drag. Cowboys who are stationed at the rear of the herd. Their job is to keep the cattle moving, especially the young cattle that may fall behind.

Night Hawk. Cowboys who rode from dusk to dawn keeping the cattle calm and settled. One eye on the cattle, one eye out for trouble. 

Range or Trail Boss.  Manager of the cow herd on the trail. A law unto himself. 

Until next time, Happy Trails, 

Nan O'Berry

Hierarchy of the Cattle Drive

Howdy all.

Let's turn back the clock today to the era of the open range. Before trains made moving product to market, cattle ranches needed to get their product from the range to the dinner table. The idea of the cattle drive was born. Ranchers banded together, hired a group of drovers to move their cattle from Texas to the west coast.

The influx of people to the west coast because of gold fever created a seller's market. If a rancher could get his herd to the west coast, he might be able to get anywhere from five dollars to ten dollars a head. If the cattle made it all the way to San Francisco, the price could even be twenty times as much. From Texas, herds of cattle from San Antonio, through El Paso, to San Diego, or Los Angles. By the year 1866, an estimated 260,000 head of cattle crossed the Red River on their journey north. But what did it take to get hundreds to thousands of head to market?

 

The photo is of cowboys around a chuckwagon on the AJ Ranch around the year 1898 cutesy of the Texas Almanac


Banding together to get as much beef to market as possible, ranchers would hire a trail boss to over see the operation. (Remember Gil Favor from Rawhide?) The Trail boss would work with owners to get documentation on all herds. He would need to know ear tags, ear marks, brands, as well as the number of head each ranch would be sending. He would then hire a crew of at least twelve men to ride herd. These hands would begin the process of placing a trail brand on the cattle. With many herds moving north and west, cattle might migrate together and would then have to be cut out and returned to their respective herds.

In order to get the job done, each rider would have to bring a long a string of eight to ten horses for the journey. These horses would be cared for by nine to ten wranglers. The herd of horses were called a Remuda.

 

This is a photo of a cattle drive in the Dakota's taken in 1887 by Grabill, John C. H., photographer. Notice the herd continues far into the distance. Some cattle herds going to market stretched twenty-five to fifty miles

With each rank, a cowboy's pay was different. A trail boss might receive between a $100.00 and $125.00 dollars for his tour of duty. A drover no more than $60.00 a month. Wranglers in charge of the Remuda would receive the lowest pay a mere $30.00 a month for the five to six months it took to get their herd to market.

The Panic of 1873 put an end to the great day of the cattle drives as rail heads pushed west and the invention of refrigerated cars took over transportation.

Famous trails out of Texas:
Chisholm Trail
Goodnight Loving
Sedalia Trail

Next month will look at the positions and jobs of the drovers on a cattle drive. Until then, happy trails!

Nan O'Berry

Cowboys to the Rescue

Cowboys to the Rescue

by Christina Cole

The glory days of cattle drives and cowboys ended long ago. Those of us who love the legend and lore of "the old west" are probably familiar with the economic factors that changed the lives of ranchers and cowboys. 

The use of barbed wire, the expansion of rail lines throughout the Great Plains states, and stricter enforcement of federal land laws all contributed to the decline of the open-range cattle ranching, the huge drives to market, the great trails, and the hard-working, hard-riding cowboys.

In  The Reader's Companion to American History, co-edited by Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, we learn that "by the mid-1880's prudent cattlemen realized that the industry was overexpanded, the Great Plains overgrazed, and the price of beef declining."

The summer of 1886 was exceptionally dry. It was followed by one of the worst winters ever recorded. The frightful weather all but destroyed anything that had remained of the original cattle industry. The open range was a thing of the past, and the only work for a cowboy was often mending fences and tending to sick cattle. 

Yet while the American cowboy may be a "dying breed", he still exists, and he still possesses important skills for handling both his horse and cattle. And as in the past, there are still times when the only man for the job is, indeed, a cowboy.

Here in the midwest, we recently had one of those times.  Spring always brings a lot of rain and thunderstorms, and sometimes driving becomes hazardous. That was the situation last week when a truck hauling 60 head of cattle from Hutchinson to Eureka crashed northwest of Wichita -- once one of the best-known "cattle towns" in America. Kansas Highway 96 was closed down as the cattle escaped from the truck and began roaming around. 

What to do? Call a cowboy, of course. Working alongside animal control officers, a crew of cowboys were able to "head 'em off, round 'em up" and get them loaded onto a new truck. 

The driver of the truck was not hurt, and the highway was soon reopened, thanks to the efforts of a few modern-day cowboys. 

Just as in days gone by... you can always count on a cowboy to come to the rescue when called.

LET'S PLAY TEXAS TRIVIA

If you’re fond of cowboys (and who doesn't love those cowboy kisses?), you might be interested in knowing more about Texas. We have a lot of cowboys here, the genuine kind. Stick around for some interesting trivia about my favorite state.

Texas, known as the Lone Star State, joined the United States by treaty in 1845 after being a country for nine years. Because of the guidelines set out in this treaty, the Texas flag may be flown at the same height as the United States flag. Texas is called the Lone Star State because of the state flag's design: a broad vertical blue stripe at left, centered by a single white star, with horizontal bars of white and red on the right. Red means courage, White means liberty and Blue stands for loyalty. The star has five points, one for each letter of the state's name.

Texas is the only state to have the flags of 6 different nations fly over it. They are: Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederate States, and the United States. And you thought Six Flags Over Texas was just an amusement theme park. Yes, I know there are Six Flags parks elsewhere, but this post is about Texas, okay?

Yum, here’s a fact that I love. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period after the Dr in Dr Pepper. Visualize me as a kid trying to convince my mom I actually needed Dr Pepper at ten, two, and four as written on the old bottles and advertised. Yeah, right. I was lucky to get one a week.

Another thing I love about Waco is that seventy-five percent of the world's Snickers bars are made there at the M&M/Mars plant. In my opinion, nothing is better than Dr Pepper and a Snickers or a Milky Way.

The hamburger was created in Athens, Texas. A hamburger goes well with a Dr Pepper. You knew I’d say that, right? Rats, now I've made myself hungry.

The Texas Rangers were organized in 1835 to protect the growing settlements from Indians and dangerous outlaws. They are very well respected here, the cream of our state law enforcement. The Stetson is a part of their uniform. Or it may be a Resistol, but the shape is the same. The Texas Ranger Museum is at Waco. Hey, Waco is sizing up to be a pretty important town, isn’t it?

The King Ranch near Corpus Christi is larger than the state of Rhode Island and includes 50,000 head of cattle and more than 2,000 miles of fence. That one boggles my mind. My husband's ancestors helped form Rhode Island. That boggles my mind, too. 

Longhorn cattle

Texas is known for its cattle, but more wool comes from the state of Texas than any other state in the United States. Edwards Plateau in west central Texas is the top sheep growing area in the country.

A coastal live oak located near Fulton is the oldest tree in the state. The tree has an estimated age of more than 1,500 years.

Children's book about the Armadillo
authored by my friend Dee Stuart

The armadillo is the official state mammal. Beware, as the armadillo is a carrier of leprosy. (That's a fact. Look it up, you doubters.) The mockingbird is the state bird, bluebonnet the state flower, pecan the state tree, and lightning whelk is the official state shell.

Mockingbird

Texas includes 267,339 square miles, or 7.4% of the nation's total area. El Paso, Texas is closer to Needles, California (516 miles) than it is to Dallas, Texas (571 miles). Either one is a long drive.

Tyler Municipal Rose Garden is the world's largest rose garden with 38,000 rose bushes of 500 varieties in a 22-acre garden. In addition to a beautiful garden, I can attest to the garden's wonderful fragrance during blooming season. October is a great month to visit.

Amarillo has the world's largest helium well. Very important if you want to inflate a balloon, talk funny, or fly a blimp.

Photo I use on my blog http:carolineclemmons.blogspot.com
and my newsletters. The photo was taken by
my friend Nelda Liles of Frisco, Texas.
This photo relaxes me each time I see it.

The official dish of Texas is chili. If you’re a student of Spanish, you realize that isn’t a meat dish. The food's actual name should be chili con carne, but we just call it chili. And it doesn’t contain pinto beans. You have those as a side dish or add them to your chili after it's cooked, but they’re not cooked together. And I don't mean kidney beans. I mean pinto beans. I serve them with cornbread muffins. Yum. For a genuine recipe, email me at caroline@carolineclemmons.com 

The World’s largest parking lot is located at DFW Airport. Well, unless you count Hwy. 121 and/or Interstate 35 at rush hour.  Amarillo airport has the 3rd largest runway in the world and is designated as an alternate landing site for the space shuttle.

We still have some of our old, quaint laws. In Texas, it's illegal to put graffiti on someone else's cow. I suppose that means it’s all right to put graffiti on your own cow. Don't you wonder how that law came into being in the first place?

The 1850 census recorded 213,000 people in Texas. In 1900, there were three million people, and by 1990, the population was more than 16 million. The 2010 census recorded approximately 18 million people live in Texas, only slightly outnumbering its 16 million cattle. No, the census takers didn’t talk to the cows. Their numbers are reported by ranchers I suppose. Texas's population is now the second largest in the country after California (which is where I lived for seven years when I was a girl).

Bluebonnets photographed near Ennis, Texas
by my friend Nelda Liles of Frisco, Texas
I love bluebonnets, so I'm including a second photo.

Have you heard the term “the old 300”? In 1820, American Moses Austin was granted land in Texas from Spanish officials. In 1821, his son, Stephen F. Austin, brought 300 families to farm along the Brazos River in Texas. Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, extended the boundaries of Austin’s colony and granted other Americans land in Texas. Being descended from one of the “old 300” families is a big deal in Texas. I don't have any ancestors in the old 300, but I have a lateral one who was here when Austin showed up.

The first suspension bridge in the United States was the Waco Bridge. Built in 1870, it is still in use today as a pedestrian crossing of the Brazos River. Dad blame it, that Waco is getting too much press time.

In 1519, Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Piñeda was the first European to visit Texas. Myths of the golden “Seven Cities of Cibola” brought many Spaniards from Mexico into Texas. Spanish missionaries built the first two missions near El Paso in 1682. By the late 1730s, missions and forts were built throughout central, east, and southwest Texas.

The Alamo mission,
cradle of Texas liberty

The Alamo is located in San Antonio. It is where Texas defenders including Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett fell to Mexican General Santa Anna and the phrase “Remember the Alamo” originated. The Alamo is considered the cradle of Texas liberty and the state's most popular historic site.

As of February 2011, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has more residents, 6.9 million, than 39 U.S. states. For example, Colorado has about 5.0 million residents. With, this tidbit about the area in which I live, I'll close the post. I hope you've enjoyed the trivia.

Caroline Clemmons' latest release is GABE KINCAID, book four of the Kincaid series.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1irY2CJ  

Nook: http://bit.ly/S7VDn4  

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1m6htQC   

Milk Cows in the Old West, by @JacquieRogers #western

Dairy Farming in the Old West

by Jacquie Rogers

Whether it's Valentine's Day or Christmas, if you own a dairy farm, there's work to be done all day, every day, 365 days a year. Of course, all farms are work-intensive, but once you enter into the stock business, life gets a lot busier. Dairy farming has the added onus of milking — twice a day, twelve hours apart. I repeat, that's 365 days a year.

No, you don't get any days off.

We'll talk about milking in a minute. There's a whole lot more to operating a dairy than milking. All the care that's required of horses, beef cattle, hogs, or chickens is also necessary to maintain a healthy dairy herd.

Breeds

Your 19th century dairy farmer most likely had Milking Shorthorns. These cattle came from the British Isles — Milking Shorthorns from Britain and Beef Shorthorns from Scotland. Originally, they were one breed but the Brits bred for milk production and the Scots for bigger steak cuts. Because of their widespread popularity for both milk production and beef, most of the oxen that pulled the wagons west were Shorthorns.

Feeding

An experienced farmer knows the right mix of feed, and that's just by looking at his animals. Are their coats shiny? Are they energetic? Has production increased or decreased? Cycles on schedule and breeding program without glitches? If the answers to all these questions are favorable, then the farmer has the right mix. If not he'll have to adjust. Need more roughage? Feed alfalfa hay. Need more protein? Corn silage is good for that — but it will change the flavor of the milk, as will certain grasses. I'm not going to go into it here but believe me, there's a lot to know about dairy animal nutrition.

Here are the basics, although the 19th century farmer wouldn't have had access to much of this information. Still, they did a lot of these things anyway just out of common sense.

Calving

A cow has to birth a calf, called freshening, before she produces milk. A dairy farmer has to have proficient veterinary skills in order to maintain his herd. Losing a cow would be a disaster to a family trying to eke out a living on a homestead that's two day's ride from anywhere. First there's the risk of breeding. A too large bull can break a cow's back (called stifling). After a successful breeding and gestation, here's how the freshening is supposed to go:

A Jersey cow freshens (gives birth to a calf):

But sometimes things don't go so smoothly. Then what? We'll go to Ireland and see. I thought this video best explained how to help a cow in trouble give birth. Several times a year, my dad did the very thing that this veterinarian shows us. Yes, I assisted occasionally. We had ropes but not that other fancy contraption. Usually, my dad planted his size 10 on the cow's butt and pulled.

How to pull a calf:

He doesn't mention it, but you also have to make sure the cow expels the placenta, and if not, you have to stick your arm in there and get it. Leaving one small piece could cause an infection.

Milking

Now that we have the calf, we'll get some milk. The first few days, the cow produces colostrum and that's the most important food the newborn calf will ever get. It's low in fat, and high in carbohydrates, protein, and antibodies. A calf who drinks colostrum is a healthy calf. The cow is still milked because you always want to empty the udder, and the extra colostrum is fed to other calves. After that, the calf is removed from the cow and bottlefed.

In the 19th century, cows were milked by hand. I'm not sure why there aren't a lot of dairy farmers as romance heroes because these men are generally stronger than other men, have broader shoulders, and they have great hands.

Pretty decent how-to, Part 1:

Part 2:

Actual handmilking motion:

Hoof care

Now you've fed your herd, milked them, and provided comfortable living conditions for them — a good shed and a nice layer of straw for them to rest in. But there's a lot more to dairy farming than that, and one of them is hoof care. Hooves grow just like our toenails do, only we don't walk on our toenails and cows do. They have cloven hooves and trimming can be quite a bit more complicated than trimming horses' hooves.

This video annoys me a bit — we always washed the cows' hooves before we started trimming. There are two reasons for that: 1) handling manure is never pleasant, but more important; 2) it's easier to see if your cuts are correct and the bottom of the hoof is nice and even.

Okay, so I don't have any romance heroes who are dairy farmers, either, but I do have a family in the Wolf Creek series who own a dairy, and the head of the family is Gib Norwood.

Here's an excerpt that shows just how precious each calf was to this family whose very existence depended on the health of their herd.

'Twas the Fight Before Christmas

by Jacquie Rogers

a short story in

Wolf Creek, Book 9: 
A Wolf Creek Christmas

Gibson Norwood melted the ice off the newborn shorthorn heifer’s nose. “Looks like you’d better spend a few days with us. Your mammy won’t like it, and neither will Glory, but maybe Santa will bring you a little something.”  That wasn’t really true about Glory—she’d been a good sport and had endured a lot since the Recent Unpleasantness.

Born a mulatto slave to Gib’s mother’s family, she was in fact, Gib’s mother’s half-sister. After his mother had died giving birth to him, his father kept Glory as the head housekeeper—and to warm his bed. Two years later, she’d given birth to the twins Peter and Paul—Gib’s half-brothers, and half-cousins, too.

Gib always suspected that his father was as much in love with his slave as any man was with his wife. They’d seemed to be dedicated to each other. Glory, only a hand taller than five foot, had run the plantation house with skill, and during the war, she’d done everything possible to nurse Gil’s ailing father while the Yankees burned and pillaged the farm.

Gib gathered up the baby calf, tucking his left arm under the calf’s brisket and his right arm around the heifer’s hind quarters. He headed toward the soddy, choosing his footing carefully through the four-inch snow. Then through the dusk, he saw Paul, who also carried a calf, and the race was on. Whoever got there first would have Glory’s sympathy—but two calves in her house, especially on Christmas Eve, would set her to scowling for sure.

♥ ♦ ♣ ♠

Oh wait, this is Valentine's Day!  

Yes, there's a book waiting just for you.  I have a pig farmer in this one.  Okay, so he's a former bounty hunter.

A Flare of the Heart

by Jacquie Rogers
a short story in
Hearts and Spurs

Celia Valentine Yancey has no illusions she’ll ever enjoy wedded bliss, so chooses marriage over spinsterhood even if she has to marry a man her father picked. On the way to meet her groom, she endures armed robbery, a stagecoach wreck, a dozen hungry baby pigs — and an incorrigible farmer.

Ross Flaherty retired from bounty hunting to become a farmer but now Celia has brought his worst fear to his door — in more ways than one. A ferocious wolf-dog and a dozen piglets are no match for this determined lady.

Which is more dangerous — the Sully Gang or Miss Celia Yancey?

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Romancing The West | Pickle Barrel Bar & Books

Cowboy Lullabies

Anyone who’s read western novels or watched a few cowboy movies knows that cowboys often sang to the cattle they herded, whether on their home range or along the Big Trail to market. Crooning to the cattle helped calm them, especially at night when they might be spooked by a coyote’s yapping, a wolf howling at the moon, lightning, thunder, and countless other causes. I suspect singing also kept the tired night herders awake after a long day in the saddle.

Composed by cowhands riding around the herds, the songs followed the rhythm of a horse's gait and often weren’t very tuneful. Some didn’t even have words. They were called "Texas lullabies." Others had verses that have outlasted their authors..

Today, as a little Valentine gift, I’d like to share two traditional cowboy lullabies. Think of them as love songs to the cattle and the comboy’s best friend, his horse.

Herding cattle in Oklahoma, ca. 1870s - 1880s


Night Herding Song

Author unknown

Slow down little doggies, quit rovin' around
You have wandered and trampled all over the ground
Graze along doggies, feed kinda slow
Don't forever be on the go
Move slow little doggies move slow 

I've circle-herded, trail-herded, night-herded too
To keep you together is what I can't do
My horse is leg weary and I'm awful tired
And if you get away I am sure to get fired
Bunch up little doggies bunch up

Lay still little doggies since you have laid down
Stretch away out on the big open ground
Snore loud little doggies and drown the wild sounds
That will all go away when day roles around
Lay still little doggies lay still

So little doggies quit rovin' around
You have wandered and trampled all over the ground
Graze along doggies, and feed kinda slow
Don't forever be on the go
Move slow little doggies move slow

Doney Gal

Author unknown

“Doney Gal” was a pet name for a cowboy’s favorite horse; it means sweetheart.

 

A cowboy's life is a weary thing
Rope and brand and ride and sing
Yes, day or night in the sleet and hail
He'll stay with the dogies out on the trail.

 

Chorus: Rain or shine, sleet or snow Me and my Doney Gal are bound to go
Rain or shine, sleet or snow, Me and my Doney Gal are bound to go.

We're up and gone at the break of day
Driving them dogies on their lonesome way
The cowboy's work is never done
We're up and gone from sun to sun

 

We yell at the rain, laugh at the hail
Driving them dogies down the lonesome trail
We'll yell at the rain, sleet and snow
When we reach the little town of San Antonio
Rain or shine, sleet or snow,
Me and my Doney Gal are on the go.
We travel down that lonesome trail
Where a man and his horse seldom ever fail.

Chorus repeat

 

We'll ride the range from sun to sun,
For a cowboy's work is never done.
He's up and gone at the break of day
Drivin' the dogies on their weary way.

Chorus repeat

 

Travelin' up the lonesome trail
Where a man and his horse seldom ever fail,
Joggin' along through fog and dew,
Wishin' for sunny days, and you.

Chorus repeat

 

Over the prairies lean and brown,
On through the wastes where there ain't no town.
Swimmin' the rivers across our way,
We fight on forward day-end on day.

Chorus repeat

 

Trailin' the herd through mountains green,
We pen the cattle in Abilene.
Round the campfire's flickerin' glow
We sing the songs of long ago.

Chorus repeat

 

Book Excerpt:

Dashing Druid – Texas Druids trilogy, book II

 

The silhouette of another rider appeared against the cream-colored moon, approaching at a walk from the opposite direction. She knew it was Neil. He was the only man her father trusted out here alone with her at night. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself. She’d learned how to use a knife and a gun when she was a little mite.

 

“Lily, is that you, colleen?” the man called out low as they neared one another.

 

“You! What are you doing out here?” she blurted, sawing on her reins, causing her horse to snort. Hearing the nearby cattle stir, she lowered her voice. “Where’s MacClure?”

 

“In his bedroll by now, I should think.” He grinned, teeth flashing in the moonlight. “I volunteered to take part of his shift so I could have a moment alone with ye.”

“Have you been eating locoweed again? If my father finds out –”

 

 “I’ll risk it, since this seems to be the only way."

 

“You dang fool!” she hissed, struggling not to yell. “Pa meant what he said. Unless you want to end up dead, you’d best stay away from me.” She kneed her horse ahead, paying no attention when Tye called softly after her.

 

They circled the herd and met again, but Lil refused to speak to him. Riding on, she heard a muttered curse behind her.

 

The third time they met, Tye prodded his horse close before she could get past him and gripped her arm. Lil squeaked in alarm as he leaned toward her without saying a word. His other hand reached out to cup the underside of her jaw. Her hat fell back to dangle by its chin strings as his mouth claimed hers.

 

Any resistance she might have offered gave way beneath his insistent kiss. She wanted this as much as he did. Laying a hand on his chest, she opened her mouth to his exploring tongue. A rush of heat swept through her, drawing a smothered moan from her throat. His answering groan told her he was just as affected as she was.

 

Her horse suddenly squealed in protest and shied away from Tye’s mount. Torn apart from him, Lil gasped and fought for balance. She quickly settled her ornery steed, but the ruckus brought several cattle to their feet.

 

Breathing hard, she faced Tye, sharing the frustration on his moonlit face.

 

His gaze went to the restless herd. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he said, husky-voiced. “I only meant to speak to ye, but –”

 

“Don’t talk,” she whispered urgently. “Just start riding and sing. And don’t try that again, or we’ll have a stampede on our hands.”

 

Dashing Druid video: http://youtu.be/QEhX6N39rrE

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069HLDJU (Kindle)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1470004003 (paperback)

Much Ado About Mutton - Meg Mims

I confess. I stole the clever title for this blog post. The original was used for a conference workshop about mutton-eating in Detroit's old days. But it certainly fits the history of the cattle-sheep wars in the old West from 1870 to the 1920s. I also confess I had to do some quick research about the topic, since I haven’t read enough Western history of the cattle barons, trails, stockyards, open range and the like.

Cattle vs. sheep wars were not like the big, bad Johnson County cattle range wars -- not that I'm up on that history either. I discovered the most common states experiencing cattle vs. sheep troubles were Arizona, Texas, Wyoming and Colorado. Were murders and the slaughter of animals really rampant? Numbers prove it – over fifty men murdered and between 50,000 and 100,000 sheep slaughtered. Serious enough! 

Remember I’m an eastern greenhorn, born and raised in Michigan. Land of trees, the Great Lakes, lighthouses, beaches and cars. Yes, the automobile – which replaced horses after the turn of the 20^th century. And yes, prior to that, horses were common (along with horse dung) all across the country, whether for riding or pulling omnibuses, wagons and stagecoaches. So the “beef vs. mutton” dispute is news to me.

Let’s face it, cowboys (cow hands, really, since they were anything but boys) worked cattle drives on horseback. After the buffalo herds were slaughtered, the open range favored cattle driven northward on “trails” to stockyards where they were sent east to meat-packing plants in St. Louis and Chicago. Ranches could be small or huge, sprawling affairs, and disputes arose about rustling or branding mavericks to swell the herds. But sheep? Cowhands considered them an insult.

What factors played a role in the conflict between cattle and sheep men in the Old West? First, some believed that sheep with their smaller mouths grazed closer to the ground and ruined the range, and that cattle would not drink from water sources “polluted” by sheep. Second, ethnicity may have played a shadowy role – men of Spanish origin herded sheep, and herders worked the sheep on foot or burro, sometimes on horseback. The ratio of animals to men were far smaller with sheep than cattle. You can imagine how “outnumbered” the sheep and herders would be in a range dispute.

For example, Charles Goodnight’s cowhands drove over four hundred sheep into the Canadian River and drowned them after herders “invaded” their range along the Texas-New Mexico border in 1875. 2400 sheep were slaughtered in Oregon in 1903 by driving them off a cliff, or “rimrock,” and the survivors shot. Other sheep herds were stampeded or poisoned.

But some disputes turned into murder. The 1886-1887 Pleasant Valley war (not so pleasant, really) in Arizona between the Graham and Tewksbury feuding factions resulted in about thirty dead men. Plenty of books and movies, some factual and some far-fetched, were spawned out of these Old West range wars.

By 1920 disputes between cattle and sheep ranchers cooled down, since the “open range” had been fenced off by that time. I'm partial to beef burgers over mutton on my dinner plate, but I do enjoy gyros. That's about as close to a cow or sheep I'll ever get.

Here’s a few interesting books, blogs and movie resources.

Dane Coolidge, Hidden Water, 1910

Bill O'Neal, Cattlemen vs. Sheepherders: Five Decades of Violence in the West, 1880–1920, Eakin Press, 1989

http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/azs01

The Sheepmen – 1958 Glenn Ford film

Picture credits: 

Book cover and illustrations by Maynard Dixon, from the 1910 edition of Hidden Water – which I “rustled” from Ron Scheer’s BUDDIES IN THE SADDLE blog. Slaughtered sheep image from en.wikipedia.org

Meg Mims is the award-winning author of DOUBLE CROSSING (2012 Spur Award - Best First Novel, Finalist in Best Books of 2012 by USA Book News), available on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, in e-book, trade paperback and hardcover. To the right is the cover for the HC large print edition from Center Point Publishing.

Meg is working on the sequel, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, and hopes to release it in early spring. Want a sneak peek? Check out her blog for The Next Big Thing!