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Dennis Begin
Tribute to the Cowboy, La Posta Quemada Ranch.
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Dennis Begin
Colt 45, Single Shot Revolver that helped win the West.
Words by Dennis Begin
The American Southwest is cowboy country. The image of a cowboy or cowgirl is universal, be it at the Calgary Stampede or the La Fiesta de los Vaqueros or rodeo in Tucson. When Americans conjure up images of cowboys, it is not the modern rancher in his truck, but the images of cattle drives and gunfights. The American Wild West or Old West lasted approximately 25 years from 1865 to 1890, and then faded into the modern twentieth century. As men drifted West following the American Civil War, a new frontier was created from Arizona to Montana. The common belief was that no law existed west of Dodge City, Kansas, and the land was free for the taking. Neither belief was correct. All a man seemed to need was a good horse, a Colt 45, a Winchester rifle and a bottle of whiskey. A new age had emerged - the ‘era of the cowboy'.
Era of the Cowboy
The term ‘cowboy' originated from the Spanish terms ‘vaquero', meaning a 'man on horse', and ‘vaca' meaning 'cow.' Other terms emerged such as cowpoke, wranglers, buckaroo, drover, and gaucho in Spanish. The cowboy even dressed different, with high heels boots, vest jacket, chaps, a ten-gallon hat and a bandana around their neck. It was the cattle drives of 1866 to 1886 from Southern Texas to Kansas that defined the working life of the cowboy. Cattle, especially longhorns from Texas, had to be moved to the railhead cities of Dodge City and Wichita, and then on to the slaughterhouses of Chicago. A steer in Texas cost $4.00 but sold for $40.00 in Dodge City. The more famous cattle routes included The Chisholm, Great Western, and the Goodnight-Loving Trails. It would take a dozen men three months to herd 3,000 cattle over 1600 kilometres (1,000 mi), averaging 24 km (15 mi) per day, all in the hope of turning a good profit.
Along the cattle drive routes, cowboys had to deal with the extreme heat, stampedes, drought, rattlesnakes, rivers, storms, and cattle rustlers. Imagine spending three months working, sleeping and eating in the same clothes? After months in the saddle, cowboys immediately headed for the public baths/laundry, the saloons, and the brothels. So do you still want to be a cowboy at $30.00 to $60.00 per month?
Chuck is Ready
From the cattle drives, new inventions emerged such as the chuckwagon. Cowboys had to be kept well fed and happy so the cooks served up beef and bison jerky, sourdough biscuits, beef stew, pecos strawberries (slang for beans), chuckwagon chicken (bacon), which the cowboys all washed down with strong coffee. It was common belief that the cattle herds moved on the stomach of the cowboys.
The cattle drives on the open range quickly faded into legend when barbed wire fences, refrigeration, and the Homestead Acts brought thousands of settlers to the West.
Cowboys and the Law
A job that paid well but few people wanted was that of a U.S. Marshal, as 45% of marshals were killed in the line of duty. Many lawmen were hardly law-abiding, working both sides of the law — men such as Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson were known for their questionable criminal pasts. On average, the marshal's job paid $90 a month, plus a percentage for collecting federal taxes as well as issuing warrants, subpoenas, and licenses. Other famous marshals included Dallas Stoudenmire (El Paso, Texas), Commodore Perry Owens [Holbrook, Az.], Elfego Baca [Socorro, N.M.] and Texas John Slaughter [Douglas, Az.]. These men were the epitome of frontier justice, even if it was one bullet at a time.
Equally famous outlaws included men such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Johnny Ringo, John Wesley Hardin, The Dalton Brothers and The Hole in the Wall Gang. Every town had a Boot Hill for gunfighters who died with their boots on. Eastern readers could not get enough of the gunfights, such as The Shootout at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona. The life of these men, good or bad, was romanticized and fictionalized in the dime-store novels and pulp magazines of the 1870-80's. Two of the most famous writers were Zane Gray and Ned Buntline, who made life in the West seem very idyllic.
It was not the gunfights that finally brought peace and order to the Wild West, but a combination of a flood of settlers, railroad construction and the law of the Texas Rangers, Pinkerton Detective Agency and the U.S. Marshal Service.
Photo courtesy of True West Magazine
Wyatt Earp [R] and Bat Masterson [L].
Television and Movies
The movie and later the television industry made the cowboy very popular, starting with the singing cowboys Roy Rogers, Rex Allen and Gene Autry. Actors like John Wayne [Stagecoach], Garry Cooper [High Noon] and Clint Eastwood [The Good, the Bad and the Ugly] dominated the big screen for decades. Personal favourites include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Maverick and Dances With Wolves. Television further added to western legends with shows such as Rawhide, Bonanza, the Riflemen and the Lone Ranger. The major theme was good versus evil with the law eventually winning. The good cowboys wore a white hat, rode a beautiful horse, got the pretty girl and then rode off into the sunset for some strange reason.
Tucson, Arizona is the center for Hollywood's Old West. Visit the Old Tucson Studios where they made 215 western movies and 28 TV series. Also visit the Mescal movie set near Benson, where they filmed The Quick and the Dead, Tombstone and the Outlaw Jessie Wales.
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke was one of the best shows on television from 1955 to 1975, being the number one show from 1957 to 1961. US Marshal Matt Dillon [James Arness] was responsible for law and order in Dodge City, ‘The Cowboy Capital of the World.' Dillon had to deal with gunfighters, gamblers, ranchers, cattle rustlers and drunken cowboys, all without getting himself shot every week on television for twenty years. Over sixty famous movie stars appeared on the show, including Bette Davis, William Shatner, Harrison Ford, Loretta Swift, Paul Newman and Burt Reynolds. More important than the emerging stars was that Gunsmoke was the first Western to deal with difficult social issues, including domestic abuse and Indian genocide.
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Photo courtesy of CBS Studios.
James Arness [Matt Dillion}.
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Dennis Begin.
Photo of the Whetstone Mountains, Az., often used as backdrop in Gunsmoke [it's not Kansas].
Empire Ranch
Of the 635 Gunsmoke episodes, the vast majority were filmed in the CBS Los Angeles Studios, the Melody Ranch Studios near Newhall, California and on the Empire Ranch [1972-74], east of Tucson on US-83. Empire was a real working ranch but is now undergoing major renovations. Hollywood found the ranch an excellent backdrop for western movies, including 3:10 to Yuma, Red River, The Cowboy and Hombre. Some of the biggest stars performed here including John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Steve McQueen and Canadian Lorne Green. In total, 35 movies used the Empire Ranch and the backdrop of the Whetstone Mountains for filming. Gunsmoke and Matt Dillon had good company.
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Dennis Begin
Empire Ranch House undergoing renovations.
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Dennis Begin