Missouri Life June 2023

And yet, despite the dangers, the discomfort, the monotony, the slow pace, and recalcitrant cows, there was no lack of boys and young men eager to sign or make their mark for what they envisioned as the adventure of a lifetime. With the millions of cows being driven north, there was always a job waiting for them. And after their herds were delivered, many of them signed on for the next long drive, and the next. Despite the hazards and hardships, the rugged life of a cowboy was a dream job. THREE MONTHS ON THE TRAIL One after another, as the railroad moved ever farther west, the destination towns, or “railheads,” became legendary in their own right. Thanks in large part to Hollywood, when we think of the big cattle drives of the late 1800s, it is generally such end-of-trail towns as Despite what television and the movies would have us believe, life on the trail was far from romantic. The drives demanded resilience. Although shootings were rare, there was no shortage of ways in which a cowboy might perish.

20 years, an estimated 20 million “beeves” left Texas for points north. Despite what television and the movies would have us believe, life on the trail was far from romantic. The drives demanded resilience. Although shootings were rare, there was no shortage of ways in which a cowboy might perish. There was the ever-present threat of Indians, who resented the seemingly endless parade of cattle crossing what had long been their tribal lands. More frequently, however, cowboys died on the trail as a result of being struck by lightning, dragged by a horse, or drowned in one the many rivers they had to cross. Pneumonia claimed drovers’ lives as a result of working and sleeping in the rain, and infec tion, which was little understood at the time, claimed its fair share of young lives. Not every calamity was fatal. Historical accounts from cowboys revealed that what didn’t kill them often just hurt like hell. Weeks and months spent in the saddle in wet and dry weather, as well as a steady diet of fried bacon and beans (“Pecos strawberries”), frequently resulted in a bad case of hemorrhoids. Don’t look for an admission in the annals of drover recollections; there were some things a cowboy simply didn’t share. Water was often hard to come by on the trail, and although daily bathing was not the practice anywhere in this time and place, life on the trail made personal hygiene virtually impossible. Cowboys were dirty, and they smelled of cows, and worse.

From left, after the Civil War, longhorn steers—abundant and relatively worthless in Texas—were driven to Sedalia then transported by railroad to hungry customers in the east. Reenactors on horseback provide a glimpse of Sedalia’s past.

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