User:Destickney/History project

Cowboy Life on The Frontier

Life on the frontier was different for many groups of people. One of these groups being cowboys. A cowboy is a hired hand who herds and cares for cattle and horses that belong to a ranch owner. He usually does his job on horse back. Some cowboys drove cattle to railroad stations other wise known as cattle drives. As time passed the job of a cowboy got more complicated. When they started driving cattle it was just an open plain that they herded cattle across. As time went on and people moved west their job got more difficult. The people started getting angry that the cattle ate and trampled through their gardens and fields. Then barbed wire was invented and it began to hurt the cattle so they had less cattle drives. Also cowboys had lots of gear that they carried with them.

Cowboy's Gear

Hat	Slicker
Duster	Chaps
Trousers	Saddle
Guns	Spurs
Handkerchief	Horse
Boots	Bed Role and camping materials

A Cowboy's clothes served several purposes. He wore a wide brim hat to keep the sun, rain, and snow off his face. The tall crown in his hat kept his head cool. They had raincoats called slickers, coats called dusters to keep the dust off of them , and they wore vests over their shirts most of the time because big bulky coats got in the way. He also wore chaps over his trousers. The chaps had double layers in the crotch. To any man who spent a lot of time in a saddle a reinforced crotch was, no doubt, a selling point. Cowboys wore cowboy boots and spurs. They wore bandannas to filter the dust out of the air they breathed in. Considering a Cowboys life was spent on the saddle him and his horse were one and they were best friends. A rope became very useful to a cowboy. All cowboys became skillful with throwing a rope. They used a rope for many many things. The cowboys saddle was his most prized possession. Some cowboys had guns called six shooters. It got in the way on their side so they kept in in their bed role. On the wagon they kept a light weight rifle. The reason few cowboys had guns was because they had to be a good shot and they had to spend so much money on bullets to practice to be a good shot.

Life of a Cowboy

The life of a cowboy was simple but were hard life as well. They depended highly on horses. Horse, a European animal had profound impact on the everyday life on the plains. The heyday of the long drive was short. By the early 1870s, rail lines reached Texas so the cattle could be shipped directly to the slaughterhouses. Ranchers allowed their cattle to graze in the open plains. Then the invention of barbed wire closed off the open plains. It allow farmers to cheaply mark their territory. The open plains became closed and the ranching business suffered severally. So much that the cattle business shut down and was ran out of the culture. The cattle was the cowboys life he had to save them from all kinds of things all of the time. Their work was very dangerous and it was hard work. They still had a simple life they didn't have any technology they just used what was on their horse and in their wagon. If they were going a long ways they would take a wagon to carry all of their supplies and their camp.

cowboys wore spurs on cattle drives.

Location of Work

Cowboys lived and worked in the west. Mainly in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. They moved around quite a bit until ranching fell out. They would work for one rancher moving his cattle all around the west taking them to sales and bringing some back. When the ranchers property would run out of food and water the cowboys would move them to locate some more. The cowboys "home" moved along with him. He of course had a quarter in his ranchers house but he also just carried a bed role with him when he moved cattle and that was his home.