Cowboy Culture

The Cowboy in western culture

Culture is usually defined as an appreciation and understanding of literature, arts and music. On a broader field, culture is the customs of a particular people or group, their traditions, their way of life.

Under both definitions, the beef cattle industry has contributed more to the overall culture of western North America over the last century than any other resource industry.

Nay sayers read on.

Other industries create spin-off businesses. Other industries have their songs and their sports and their stories. People paint pictures of trees and boats and oceans, but none of it compares to “cowboy culture” in terms of continuity, variety and volume.

Cowboy beginnings

The North American beef cattle industry began in the south, with tending the cattle. It worked its way through the western United States and arrived in British Columbia in the spring of 1858 when the first commercial herd of cattle was trailed from Oregon for sale to hungry miners who were seeking gold in the Fraser River. Thousands of head followed, and while most ended up on dinner plates, the drovers and other newcomers were quick to realize their futures might lie in the lush green grass of the central interior. Many who came for gold stayed to raise cattle. The British Columbia cowboy is said to have combined the Mexican vaquero’s skills, equipment and clothes, the US frontiersman’s grit and resourcefulness, the First Nations’ respect for nature, the British gentry’s sense of law, order and manners. He has his own unique brand of humour.

The rodeo

No other industry has a spin-off to compare with rodeo, which has become a multi-million dollar industry. This competitive event pitting people against livestock dates back to the early days when cowboys got bragging as to who was the best roper or rider, or their bosses got bragging as to who had the Top Hand.

The first rodeo to charge admission and present a trophy was in Prescott, Arizona during Frontier Days on July 4, 1888. There are some 2000 rodeos each year in North America and that’s not counting all the smaller events. There are little Britches rodeos, high school rodeos, amateur rodeos, jack pot rodeos, professional rodeos, and even rodeo schools to instruct people to compete in the rodeo arena. Early competitors were working ranch hands, but over the years rodeo has grown a life of its own. Some of today’s events aren’t really related to ranch work (bull riding) and some top competitors may never have been near a working ranch.

Having said that, ranch related events are coming back in style. Williams Lake Stampede has a top ranch hand competition and both the O’Keefe and Hat Creek historic ranches hold “Top Hand” events, where contestants have to be working cowboys representing a ranch. In BC more indoor arenas are appearing on the scene and ropers and barrel racers train and compete all year. Events like cattle penning are gaining popularity.

Boots and denim

Cowboy clothes are everywhere. Denim jeans, cowboy boots, bandanas, vest and cowboy hats found their way in the North American and BC fashion scene from the beginning and they’ve stayed popular. Denim is taking a new meaning in the Cariboo. A lumber company is promoting beetle killed lumber by calling it ‘denim pine’ because of the blue streak.

Songs of lost love, lonesomeness, and labour

Western movies and TV series and music are another aspect of cowboy culture. Like all folk music, cowboy music originated with the labouring man. The cowboy was, and still is, the front line employee in the ranching industry, and the songs reflect the difficulties and tragedies of daily life on the range and on the trail. Cowboys sing of special events, special friends (including horses), of loves won and lost (mostly lost). If much of the verse was plaintive, it was because the cowboy life was a lonesome one.

Early cowboy songs were versions of old European folk songs. The tune of the classic Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie dates back to an 1830s seaman’s song “Ocean Burial”.

The guitar, banjo and fiddle and sometimes the accordion were, and still are, the traditional cowboy instruments but in the early days, especially when on the trail, or on the range, the harmonica and jew’s harp were popular because they were easy to carry.

Cowboy music and cowboy poetry go hand in hand. Some say the poetry came about because not everyone had a guitar. The Cariboo has always had it’s share of western entertainers.

Dancin' partners

Cowboy dancing was something else. In the early days the guys didn’t get to town very often so they didn’t get to learn or practice the different dance steps. Most could polka. The large leg swings incorporated in the polka have been compared to the movement cowboys used to dismount their horses, the push and pull arm movement to the rhythm of handling the horses’ reins. Cowboys’ dance partners sometimes suspected the moves were more related to the way cowboys wrestled steers to the ground. The story is that square dancing and round dancing came about because cowboys who didn’t know the steps could follow a caller.

Artists on the range

Cowboy art has been popular for well over a century and it shows no sign of abating. Painting and sculpture reflect real scenes and events of ranch life. From the beginning cowboy artists have expressed their feelings in powerful images of western life paintings, sculptures in bronze and woodcarving. Again, BC has some outstanding western artists. A good number of BC photographers have turned their talents to recording the ranch scene, producing coffee table books with stunning western scenes.

The first cowboy book is worth noting if only for its title. An autobiography written in 1885, it was titled “A Texas Cowboy for 15 Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony Taken From the Real Life of Charles Siringo, an Old Stove Up Cowpuncher Who Spent Nearly a Lifetime on the Great Western Cattle Range.”

Many North Americans grew up with Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, but British Columbia can hold its own when it comes to cowboy and ranching stories too. Some books are classics (Harry Marriott’s Cariboo Cowboy and Rich Hobson’s books among them) and new ones hit the book stores every year.

Then there are the ranch-related crafts. No other industry has triggered such a variety. Ranchers and cowboys aren’t into factory-made gear, and craftsmen oblige them. Leather workers provide saddles and chaps and saddle bags and reins and stirrups made to order.

Western craftspeople work with metals, wood and wool as well as leather and their work is as popular with the general public as it is with the ranching and rodeo crowd. The Cariboo is not lacking for talented people in this field.

Sometimes cowboy contributions to our culture go unnoticed. The Dutch oven was used extensively by cowboy camp cooks before it found its way into our kitchens. Barbecuing is another cowboy invention.

Whoah 'dude'

It used to be that a tenderfoot who tried to be western in dress and manner was called a dude, and dude ranches were places where city folk paid to play at being cowboys. The word dude isn’t heard much these days, but guest ranches are a growing industry. They come in all sizes and descriptions from the historic working ranches like Quilchena Ranch to smaller resorts which offer trail rides. Hobby or weekend ranches are becoming more and more popular with city residents who get hooked on the western mystique.

While the western culture had never gone away, a gathering in Elko Nevada in 1985 launched a huge western cultural revival that is still sweeping the country. There are cowboy gatherings and festivals and concerts in BC, Alberta and the western United States and BC performers are an important part of that picture.

Story by Diana French provided courtesy of The Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin