| In the State of Texas the Western Cowboy can | | | | tear out the fences as fast as they were |
| be found home on the range. But can you | | | | being built. The government made the problem |
| really find a true western cowboy in the | | | | even worse by offering to give free land |
| state of Texas? At one time you could find | | | | holdings to any person who was willing to |
| real cowboys in Texas but that time was over | | | | settle the range lands. |
| one hundred years ago. | | | | |
| | | | Many settlers were killed or removed from the |
| Up until the end of the war between the north | | | | land which they had claimed. Some sold land |
| and the south you could find western cowboys | | | | back to the ranches, but most were not that |
| still roaming the range. However the end of | | | | lucky. The development of the railway which |
| this conflict brought many changes to the | | | | was an excellent mode of transportation to |
| open range. | | | | move cattle to the markets, destroyed the |
| | | | need for the long cattle drives. The |
| The railway was completed to areas of the | | | | railway, and the new barb wire fencing had |
| country that previously did not have a good | | | | literally wiped out the common cowboy. |
| system of transport. Cities were rebuilt and | | | | |
| new cities sprung up around the country. The | | | | This took place over a very short time span |
| hard feelings between the north and the south | | | | of about ten years. Some folks will say that |
| never really disappeared totally. Even today | | | | home on the range cowboys have all but |
| in some parts of the country there are people | | | | disappeared. |
| who still harbor a dislike from the north or | | | | |
| the south. | | | | There are a lot of large number of working |
| | | | ranches still today with vast tracks of land |
| In the later part of the 1860s a new | | | | but many of the best valleys and most fertile |
| invention devastated the open range. A new | | | | land has been purchased by large |
| type of wire with barbs attached started | | | | corporations. The cowboy of today has |
| showing up all over the United States of | | | | changed a lot from the cowboy of fifty years |
| America. The introduction of this wire began | | | | ago. The days of driving a thousand head of |
| a new type of war in some states. It was | | | | cattle and horses are long gone and remain |
| known as the range wars. | | | | only as a legend and a fond memory. |
| | | | |
| The barb wire actually pitted neighbor | | | | The modern cowboy looks like the western |
| against neighbor, and family members against | | | | cowboy of the past. Today's cowboy still |
| family members. What was known a free range | | | | uses his horse as did the western cowboy of |
| land where cattle were moved from one | | | | the State of Texas from bye gone times. But |
| location to another was no more. | | | | the way he manages his land has changed as |
| | | | have the cattle drives. |
| The cattle men now had to contend with land | | | | |
| grabs by farmers and those who wanted their | | | | If one takes a moment to stand on the range |
| own free range land. Large tracks of land | | | | and listen carefully you might hear the |
| was being fenced off all over the states. As | | | | thunder of hoofs and the call of the western |
| the cattlemen tried to maintain their | | | | cowboy off in the distance, and experience a |
| holdings they would hire bounty hunters to | | | | glimpse of our past. |