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