"On this day in 1883, many Texas cowboys went on strike against their bosses, absentee ranchers. The cowboys’ grievances, however, were against developments that proved permanent. As closed-range ranching wiped out the previous open-range industry, some of the cowboys’ traditional perks were denied them. No longer could they brand mavericks, keep small herds of their own, or receive part of their pay in calves."
The strike only lasted 2.5 months, and didn’t change anything.
Preparing for what might become our annual spring break trip to West Texas, in March, this time to Fort Davis, in the Davis Mountains, whence the above scene, circa 1870s. No stagecoaches nowadays of course. It’s Interstate 10 almost all the way, to Balmorhea, anyway, then a 31-mile, two-lane jog south to Fort Davis. About half of the old fort has been restored as a tourist attraction, which we’ll take in, along with the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas. All this primarily for Mr. Boy and Mom who have never been to either spot. Ft. Davis was never your Hollywood stockaded log-cabin frontier fort, but rather made of planks and brick. Set there in the 1850s to fight Indians, primarily the Mescalero Apache, it was home to, among others, the famed black Buffalo Soldiers. Much more, with pictures, maps and art here/Painting "Fort Davis" By Melvin Warren.
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Posted in Texana
Tagged Buffalo Soldiers, Fort Davis, Melvin Warren, Mescalero Apache, Texana, West Texas
…ain’t hardly PC. But it’s a rich helping, as The Fat Guy demonstrates better than most:
"…the tales told, over a glass of shine in the glare of a Coleman lantern with a deck of cards on the table, were nice. They might have been all lies, but they were my lies, and they always will be."
No better lies than Texas lies. Lot of truth in them.
I used to work with Mike Cox when he was a police reporter years ago, before he became semi-famous as the state police spokesman during the Branch Davidians’ standoff in the 1990s. He’s written a bunch of Texana books since then, and he’s still a good writer. This column of his on Texas cotton farming is a reminder of that, and of a life that once defined the youth of many but, blessedly, is now pretty much gone. As they used to say: "Kids that don’t learn to pick cotton never amount to anything."
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 