TEXAS RANCHES & RANCHING

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"It's All Trew" A column by Delbert Trew (Rancher, author, musician) > Sample Topics: Smoking just seemed to go along with cowboy life, Barbed wire telephones, Screen door was faithful fixture, Bugs provided hours of entertainment, Quilting was hub of family, social life... more

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Texas Ranches, Ranching, Cowboys & Cattle Drives:

Doan's Crossing - There is a large granite marker that includes many of the brands of the most famous ranches in Texas. The Texas Longhorn: Shaped By Nature by Clay Coppedge Longhorns are as Texan as it gets... The Western Cattle Trail Crossings at Fort Griffin 3-3-08 Black Cowboys by Murray Montgomery 2-3-08 The black cowboy has been part of the ranching industry in Texas for a long time. They were born into slavery in the beginning but after the Civil War they continued to work on the ranches as free men...

Cadillac Ranch by M.M. Harris 12-15-07 Tom Jones at the Cadillac Ranch A photo essay 12-15-07

No journey too far for determined cattlemen by Delbert Trew 4-17-08 From the stockman of biblical times to the modern day rancher, he has always been out in front of civilization looking for fresh graze for his livestock. His trials were many, often more than his share as he challenged the vast prairies, unpredictable weather, one disease after another and the continually changing financial world... Horse-to-tractor switch laborious by Delbert Trew 2-21-08 The big switch from equine horsepower to gasoline power was about over when I became old enough to remember... Dust Bowl was deadly by Delbert Trew 2-7-08 Until 1930, most agriculture workers, and especially the cattlemen, had retained their independence from government help and interference. However, the Crash of 1929 ushered in the beginnings of the Great Depression. By 1931 severe drought set in all across the Great Plains from Canada to Texas with annual rainfall averages cut in half from normal. By 1933, areas in the Southern Plains began to experience dust storms that eventually grew into the Dust Bowl... It's a wonder the Panhandle was ever settled by Delbert Trew 12-11-07 From 1850 to 1900, new settlers flocking to the Panhandle and West Texas prairies faced almost insurmountable odds in establishing a legal homestead. Most had few resources at hand or the time to waste as they searched and settled... Hog Drives of Frio Canyon Texas - Part I: “Git Along Little Piggy” Late 1890’s - Early 1900’s by Linda-Kirkpatrick 12-8-07 The Frio Canyon suffered hard times in the late 1800’s... The folks, who built up the early ranches in the Leakey area, did what they could to just get by... Like the cattle drives of old but just not as classy or as romantic or as written about were the hog drives of the Frio Canyon. Old-time improvisation in branding and jailing by Delbert Trew 10-23-07 Early ranchers formed well-organized groups by Delbert Trew 10-16-07 Since the beginning of livestock domestication of sheep and goats in 6,000 B.C., problems of ownership of livestock and regulation for grazing the public domain have occurred. As numbers of livestock increased, pastoral customs, grazing regulation and preservation of ownership problems grew in proportion... Bull Durham tobacco the 'cheapest luxury' by Delbert Trew 10-10-07 ...The tobacco became famous after 1860 when the trademark was registered, as almost every posed photo of a man showed the small round paper tags hanging from a vest or shirt pocket. This product took center stage in the West just like Arbuckle Coffee and Stetson hats... Cow Patties by Mike Cox 9-26-07 ...On the High Plains, where trees were scarcer than sinners at a revival, finding fire fuel took more effort. While folks traveling in a wagon might haul an emergency supply of split wood, travelers, scouts, and cowboys soon realized that a ready source of fuel surrounded them – buffalo chips... B. F. (Frank) Payne, Texas Ranger by Linda-Kirkpatrick 9-5-07 ...Annually they would round up the herds and brand the calves according to the brand of their mother. Thus each rancher was able to keep up with the herd size and the cattle belonged to him even though the cow herds ran free. This process worked well until the Civil War. Many of the young men who had hired out to work these cows were called to fight... Conditioning a saddle into tiptop quality by Delbert Trew 8-7-07 venture a guess that only one in 10 readers will be familiar with the term "Neatsfoot Oil." This oil has been a mainstay in saddle and harness maintenance for centuries. No old-time, self-respecting rancher, farmer or cowboy would be caught without a can sitting in his saddle or harness storage... Sarge Cummings Master of the Long Loop Linda-Kirkpatrick 7-1-07 Robert H. “Sarge” Cummings was known as a master of the long loop, a cowboy term for rustler. This old coot was loved by all, except for maybe the Texas Rangers. Children were ecstatic whenever he came to visit a spell. Some would crawl under his chair just to spin the rowels on his spurs as he spun tales of the wild west... Trail drivers brought in income, coined phrases by Delbert Trew 5-6-07 Texans owe a round of applause to the old-time trail drivers who in a period of years drove more than 5 million head of livestock to the northern markets. This income helped the state of Texas recover from the effects of the Civil War. The following terms were coined during the Trail Drive Era and many are still with us today... Hungry cowboys foil pickle plan by Delbert Trew 5-2-07 In the early days when a cowboy "sold his saddle" it meant he was down and out, finished, disgraced or maybe doing time in jail. In short, he was no longer a cowboy... "Vaquero" - Cowboy statue by Luis Jimenez in Houston Chisholm Trail: Fording the Brazos at Kimball Bend Bosque County Texas by Angela Blair Stampede Mesa by C. F. Eckhardt "Not many people know about Stampede Mesa these days, but from the early 1880s until Texas cattlemen quit driving beef north, those two words would make a cold-footed rat run up and down a cowboy's spine. Stampede Mesa was-and may still be-one of the most thoroughly haunted places in Texas." Withers by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales") Back in Texas' trail-driving days, a cow pony could cause a man an awful lot of worry - especially a horse with idiosyncrasies...

The Devilin' of Old John by C. F. Eckhardt Old John was about the oldest man I knew who was still working as a cowboy, and I don't know how old he was when he died... Cowboy Life on a Small Spread by C. F. Eckhardt Cowboyin' ain't all it's cracked up to be. It's not all horsebackin' and branding and Saturday night at the dance hall. Herewith a view of some of the cowboy chores Roy and Gene never did in the Saturday matinee... The Chisholm Trail Rides Again by Clay Coppedge Anyone wanting to follow the Old Chisholm Trail through Bell County would find part of the quest relatively easy, at least as easy as driving on IH-35... Deere was a man farmers could really dig by Delbert Trew " In 1838, a village blacksmith named John Deere created a plow from a worn saw blade. Amazingly, the new design blade sheared the soil cleanly and the moldboard laid the new soil aside in long, neat ribbons..." Cowboys: Stand-up comedians for the Lord by Delbert Trew "Few occupations experience everyday hazards quite like that of the cowboy..." Cowboy Tree by Mike Cox "...In a way, it’s natural enough that Pleasanton would have such a tree, unnatural as the combination of the words “cowboy” and “tree” seems to be. The Atascosa County community south of San Antonio has long claimed to be the birthplace of the cowboy..."

Windmills by Clay Coppedge "This may be a bitter pill for some Texans to swallow, but the windmill was not invented in Texas. Neither was the Colt revolver. Ditto barbed wire..."

Patrolling the Mexican Border by Air Cruse Aviation in the late 40s and early 50s by John Troesser, Photos courtesy Cruse Aviation

Shortly after World War II, the threat of invasion from Mexico was far different from the perceived threat today. Then the menace was disease. Mexican cattle infected with the dreaded hoof and mouth disease could easily wander (or be herded by smugglers) across the shallow, drought-stricken Rio Grande. .... more

Donna Howell-Sickles Cowgirl Art