"Ma, do cowboys eat grass?" "No son, they’re part human."
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The Great Plains

Written by Walter Prescott Webb and published in 1931, The Great Plains remains one of the most authoritative works on the development of the American Cowboy. The cowboy, regardless of where he may have worked was definitely a Texas invention. Longhorn cattle, introduced by the Spanish explorers, were left to roam free in northern Mexico and what became southern Texas. It was the Texan that rounded these cattle and "trailed" them to the markets in the north. As the cattle industry began exporting to the rest of the country, the Vaquero was becoming the "Buckaroo".

Just as they had been for the Spanish explorers earlier, the Great Plains were an obstacle to the Easterner. Anglo-American civilization had formed in the wet timbered areas of Europe and North America, but when these people came to this radically different land, their lifestyles and institutions were failures and had to be adapted if they were to survive. In the Plains the Kentucky long rifle, forest-based cattle raising, wood or stone fencing and housing, plentiful water, wet land farming, gave way to the horse, the Colt revolver, the Winchester carbine, the open-range cattle industry, barbed wire, sod housing, windmills, dry land farming, and irrigation.

"Out here mister, we dig for wood and climb for water."

The lack of water was one of the major drawbacks to life on the plains. Rivers were few and those were, at best, unpredictable. There is however an abundant supply of sub-soil water but it can only be extracted at a slow rate. The windmill provided a means for slow, continuous pumping which maintained a full water tank. When there was insufficient wind, someone had the task of climbing the windmill to turn the pump by hand. Many cowboys "climbed for water" as part of their daily chores just as digging mesquite roots for the fire were a part of life.

The horse was an essential tool for life on the Plains. Similar to the Native American who had become a superb horseman in a relatively short time, so also did the white settler. Evidence that life revolved around the horse is seen in the development of the famous "six-shooter". To a man on horseback a single-shot, muzzle-loading, long-barreled rifle was of little value. He needed a gun that was easy to load, light and compact, that could be fired from the top of a horse more than once before reloading. He found the answer to his needs in the Colt revolver. By becoming a horseman and strapping on his six- gun, the settler made two important adjustments that increased his ability to prosper on the Great Plains.

The story of living on the Great Plains is one of continual adaptation. Just as the horse, windmill and six-gun were developed to meet previously unknown needs so also were barbed wire fences and new land and water laws developed; barbed wire because of the lack of suitable fencing material and water laws because the English common law did not provide for irrigation, as it was not needed until we reached the plains. The plains were called the Great American Desert because life there was impossible as long as one tried to use the methods developed in the East. Once the pioneer developed methods that could be used in his new environment, the Great Plains began to blossom. These adaptations have caused a culture to grow that is noticeably different than that of the East or South. It is the culture of the West, the pragmatic, self-sufficient, ingenious westerner better known as, The Cowboy.

 

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