III' Cowboys and Ranchers

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III. Cowboys and Ranchers

• Cattle ranching becomes big business in 1860s and
  1870s as RRs supply transportation

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A. Who were the Cowboys?

• 1. a symbol of American values
• self-reliance and hard work
• Free-living souls who did not have to follow
  rules of settled life
• 2. About one in 6 or 7 was Mexican American
• Vaqueros of Texas
• Saddle, bridle, bit, and spur

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• 3. some are African American
• Example, Nat Love
• 4. Some cowboys are females or descendants of
  Indians
• 5. Rodeo a show in which cowboys demonstrate
  their skills

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B. Birth of Cattle Industry

• 1. Cowboys began as vaqueros in Texas in 1700s
• 2. cattle only sold locally no transportation
  to markets back East
• 3. mid 1800s Joseph McCoy decides to use RRs to
  transport cattle East
• 4. persuades RR to stop at prairie town of
  Abilene, Kansas in 1867

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• 5. peak of transport is 1871 -
• 700,000 cattle shipped

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C. Long Drives

• 1. Success of McCoys idea to ship cattle by RR
  leads to long drives
• 12 cowboys ride herd on 3,000 cattle
• 2. Follow trails from Texas to cow towns
• First is Chisholm Trail
• Shawnee, Western and Goodnight Loving Trails

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• 3. cattle that were well fed worth more
• Driven across prairie grasslands owned by govt
• 4. hard work - through storms, extreme heat,
  cattle rustlers, dust

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D. Wild West

• 1. after drive, cowboys came to town with money
  in pocket
• 2. frontier attracted many who hoped to get rich
  quick
• Some honest hardworking
• Others thieves
• Bank robbers example Frank and Jesse James
• Belle Starr cattle rustler

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• 3. to keep peace westerners formed vigilante
  groups
• Someone who takes the law into their own hands
• Often punished without a trial

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E. End of the Long Drives

• 1. initially cattle ranchers did well
• RRs move south into Texas
• Cattle ranches moved north
• By mid 1880s 7 million cattle grazed on Great
  Plains
• 2. after 1880s business fell off
• Tick fever
• Invention of barbed wire and farmers
• Series of harsh winters 1885-1886 -1887