Western Cattle Drives: Hard Times on the Trail

howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas where
we are in the middle of a cold front the next two days, temps today are
supposed to only reach 90 degrees with low humidity! Well, it's 91 in the
shade right now but maybe it won't get above 95 which will still be cool!

Ok folks I've been talking about the great cattle drives which took place
right after the Civil War to meet market demands in the East in which the
cattle were driven on hoof mostly from Texas up to Dodge City, Kansas or
St. Louis, Missouri and could take anywhere from 2 to 3 months
depending on different factors and conditions like weather.

There were some drives that went from Southern Texas all the way up to
Montana to the gold fields in the Montana Gold Rush during the 1860s and
70s and those took a grueling 5 months and thru hostile Indian territory
after they got through Kansas.

Daily life on the cattle drives as I touched on yesterday ranged from tough
to brutal and there were many ways in which a Cowboy could meet his
end.

Some got sick and caught Pneumonia from exposure to the elements and
no medical aid. Some got infections from wounds or cuts and died from
those.

Some drowned in one of the many river crossings, some were trampled
in stampedes, a few were struck by lightning in the many storms that
came up. Some were killed when they were thrown from their horse
and hit their head or broke their neck.

Others were killed from fighting with gangs of cattle rustlers and then
a few were killed by Indians but that was becoming more rare at least
on the route up to Dodge City, farther North Indians were still at war.

In addition to all those dangers they had to endure blistering heat, a
constant lack of water, freezing in the winters, being around cattle all
the time gave them fleas and ticks, body fungus was common, they
had no bathrooms or showers and much of the time they were coated
in dust. They stayed dirty all the time and smelled like cattle and worse!

And if that wasn't bad enough, when they hit the cowtowns like Dodge
City, my home town, many of the prostitutes carried venereal diseases
and they would suffer greatly from those with no medicines to treat them!

Another problem that was common...because of their diet lacking in a
balance of nutrients and much of it being beans and bacon many of them
developed hemorrhoids. Can you think of anything more painful than
riding all day with those?

The water situation was a serious one. Nowadays here in Texas as you
drive through the countryside, at least here in North Texas there are
ponds everywhere, but those are man-made. Back then they had to find
creeks and rivers and occasional water holes or gullys filled with water.

What's remarkable from a health and hygiene view is that the rule of
the Drive was that cattle drank first when water was found or a
river was reached. Have you ever seen water that cattle have been
wading and drinking in? lol. I have and it is a muddy, churned up
mess!

And speaking of mess, I always wondered why cattle seemed to
relieve themselves in the water! So the water rule was that after
the cattle drank then the men drank...I don't know who came up
with that rule but it doesn't make sense to me.

One cowboy complained to his trail boss, “I ain’t kicking, but I had
to chew that water before I could swallow it.”

Any Volunteers to be a cowboy after reading all this? In the next post
I'll be giving detailed descriptions from some of the actual cowboys
who kept diaries, it's utterly fascinating if you like history!

top 2 photos are from history.net

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know, you might just be a redneck if:

you go fishin in your above ground pool..and catch fish!