Dangers on a Cattle Drive - Primary Sources
Cowboys describe the many dangers on a cattle drive in these primary sources.
Perhaps no other event in western history captures as many people’s imagination as the cattle drive. Maybe it’s because movies like Lonesome Dove, The Cowboys, or Red River told and retold the story of the great drives. On the other hand, it could be because cattle drives are part of the history of so many states. Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana all have cattle drives in their history. Cattle drives could be so fondly remembered because in a way they symbolize a call to adventure that so many people feel. Whatever the reason, these ambitious long drives have fixed themselves in the American memory.
As much as we like to romanticize cattle drives, they were probably more difficult than we imagine. Hours were long, food was monotonous, horses were bad, cattle were worse, and sleep was hard to come by. Despite the hardships, many young men during the second half of the 19th century answered the call for trail hands. The allure of trailing thousands of cattle over wild lands and visiting far-off towns like Abilene, Dodge City, and Ogallala, was too much to resist. Like most adventures, the long drive had a mix of sun and rain, light and dark, fun and danger. In this article, we’ll take a look at some primary sources describing the dangers on a cattle drive. While these sources can not give us a complete look at every single danger cowboys faced, they should paint a general picture that will help us understand the general hazards.
Here are some of the most mentioned dangers on a cattle drive from the men who lived to tell about them.
Stampedes
Perhaps no danger is mentioned quite as much as the stampede. They are mentioned in almost every source on the subject. Before examining the sources, it might help to take a minute to understand why stampedes were so common.
The cattle driven north were longhorns gathered out of southern and eastern Texas. Starting in about the 1600s, many cattle brought by the Spanish escaped the missions and started living free of human contact. Longhorns were not necessarily wild animals, but having lived in the brush country for several hundred years they were definitely feral. This created an animal that did have domesticated instincts (the ability to herd, move, and tolerate humans) combined with those instincts necessary for survival (fight or flight). The result was an animal that teetered between an animal that could be herded and a wild half-ton deer. At times, the combination was deadly.
Stampedes normally occurred at night after the cattle had been bedded down. They were caused by lightning strikes, windy nights, a breaking stick in the darkness, or a careless cowboy flaring a match to light a cigarette. No matter what started them, in a stampede the cattle would all bolt and run through the darkness in a mindless throng of hide and horns. While this in itself wasn’t necessarily dangerous, when a stampede occurred, the cowboys had to mount their horses and try to turn the herd so they would not get scattered for miles and miles. Mounted on a running horse in the darkness after a herd of several thousand charging cattle; it’s no wonder stampedes were the most likely the most notorious of all dangers on a cattle drive.
Here are how several cowboys describe the events.
Charles Goodnight - Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman 1936
“In the excitement of a stampede a man was not himself, and his horse was not the horse of yesterday. Man and horse were one, and the combination accomplished feats that would be utterly impossible under ordinary circumstances.”
Here is a video reciting how Charles Goodnight described life on the trail.
Teddy Blue Abbott - We Pointed them North 1939
“If a storm come and the cattle started running - you’d hear that low rumbling noise along the ground and the men on herd wouldn’t need to come in and tell you, you’d know - then you’d jump for your horse and get out there in the lead, trying to head them and get them into a mill before they scattered to hell and gone. It was riding at a dead run in the dark, with cut banks and prairie dog holes all around you, not knowing if the next jump would land you in a shallow grave. I helped to bury three of them in very shallow graves.”
“A stampede is the natural result of fear, and at night or in an uncertain light, this timidity might be imparted to an entire herd by a flash of lightning or a peal of thunder, while the stumbling of a night horse, or the scent of some wild animal, would in a moment's time, from frightening a few head, so infect a herd as to throw them into the wildest panic. Amongst the thousands of herds like ours which were driven over the trail during its brief existence, none ever made the trip without encountering more or less trouble from runs. Frequently a herd became so spoiled in this manner that it grew into a mania with them, so that they would stampede on the slightest provocation, — or no provocation at all.”
Andy Adams describes trying to turn a stampede:
“Suddenly in the dark we encountered a mesquite thicket into which the S cattle tore with a crashing of brush and a rattle of horns that sent a chill up and down my spine. But there was no time to hesitate, for our horses were in the thicket, and with the herd closing in on us there was no alternative but to go through it, every man for himself. I gave (my horse) a free rein, shutting my eyes and clutching both cantle and pommel to hold my seat; the black responded to the rowel and tore through the thicket, in places higher than my head, and came out in an open space considerably in the lead of the cattle.”
Charles Siringo - A Texas Cowboy 1885
“About ten o'clock it began to thunder and lightning, which caused the herd to become unruly. Every time a keen clash of thunder would come the herd would stampede and run for a mile or two before we could get them to stop. It continued in that way all night so that we lost another night's rest…”
George C. Duffield describes a drive in 1866. Of all the first-hand accounts, Duffield may have been one of the most afflicted by the dangers of the drive.
“May 1st Traveled 10 miles to Corryell co Big Stamped lost 200 head of cattle
2nd Spent the day hunting & found but 25 Head. it has been Raining for three days. these are dark days for me.
3rd day Spent in hunting cattle found 23. hard rain and wind lots of trouble
4th Continued the hunt found 40 head. day pleasant. Sun shone once more. Heard that the other Herd has stampeded & lost over 200…
13th Big Thunder Storm last night. Stampede. lost 100. Beeves hunted all day. found 50. all tired. Every thing discouraging.”
In order to prevent the stampedes, cowbosses created systems that might prevent them. Veteran cattleman Charles Goodnight describes his system for preventing stampedes this way:
“The stampede was especially guarded against during the first ten days of so of the drive. The cattle were nervous and easily frightened, and the slightest noise might startle them into running - some were stampeders by nature. Hence everybody was on the alert, and if we succeeded in holding the herd together the first two weeks, we seldom experienced trouble from stampedes farther along on the trail.”
Other Men
Another of the major dangers on a cattle drive was that of other men. During the late 1860s and 1870s there were fortunes made trailing cattle. In terms of today’s value, a single herd could be worth over a million dollars, and they were guarded by a few more than a dozen men, lightly armed, and maybe hundreds of miles from anything resembling law enforcement. It shouldn’t be surprising that the drives were subject to frequent robbery. Here are a few descriptions of those run-ins.
Charles Goodnight describes an altercation with a man named Fischer who was “cutting” cattle he claimed here his.
“I then turned them back into the herd, and not having a pistol, took after Fisher with my cow-whip, carried him out of the herd a-flying, and gave him a thorough going-over with it. His Mexicans ran into me with their knives, and would no doubt have done me much harm had it not been for one of my men, Holloways, who fell into the bunch with his six-shooter and stood them off.”
Teddy Blue Abbott
“Coming up in ‘79, we ran into rustlers in the Nations. These fellows were Mexicans and some good-for-nothing white men and half-breeds, who picked on the trial herds after they crossed Red River. They would follow you up for days with a pack horse, waiting their chance and keeping out of sight among the hills. A dark night was what they were looking for, especially if it was raining hard, because the rain would wash out the tracks - they’d figured all that out. They would watch you as you rode around the herd on night guard - always tow men, and you rode to meet - and then when the tow of your come together they would slip up to the other side of the herd and pop a blanket. And the whole herd would get up like one animal and light out. These rustlers had very good horses, and they would cut in ahead of you as you tried to get up in front of the herd, and would cut off anywhere from fifty to two hundred head of big, strong lead steers.”
Andy Adams describes an encounter with bunch cutters. These men would hide out along the trail and then claim individual animals out of a herd. Due to stampedes, herds sometimes were mixed, and these bunch cutters could sometimes separate many cattle from the numerous herds that passed. In this story, the bunch cutter has called to cut a cow that the foreman (Flood) has returned to his own herd, while calling the man out for being a cow thief. The following verbal banter was recorded by Adams:
“Before going, I'll take this occasion to say to you that you will see me again," replied the leader, riding up and confronting Flood. "You haven't got near enough men to bluff me. As to calling me a cow thief, that's altogether too common a name to offend anyone; and from what I can gather, the name wouldn't miss you or your outfit over a thousand miles. Now in taking my leave, I want to tell you that you'll see me before another day passes, and what's more, I'll bring an outfit with me and we'll cut your herd clean to your road brand, if for no better reasons, just to learn you not to be so insolent."
After hanging up this threat, Flood said to him as he turned to ride away, "Well, now, my young friend, you're bargaining for a whole lot of fun. I notice you carry a gun and quite naturally suppose you shoot a little as occasion requires. Suppose when you and your outfit come back, you come a-shooting, so we'll know who you are; for I'll promise you there's liable to be some powder burnt when you cut this herd."
Eventually, the herd cutter is captured by Texas Rangers before he can cut Flood’s herd again. Luckily, nobody was killed, but guns were drawn and tempers were certainly hot.
George C. Duffield
“(July) 31st Find ourselves out two Horses. Hunted for them Most of the day. Two of the Boys came to a camp of Indians returning from a Hunt. They were very saucy & when asked about the Horse threatened to short. Was glad to get away without the Horse
“(August) 2nd This morning just at day break we had a Mule & Horse stolen & followed the Fellow so close after a big race that he had to let them go. I think He was a white Man. We are stil traveling in the Indian Country & see but few & they generally away on the mountain top watching us.
Drowning
Andy Adams
“But the majestic grandeur of the river was apparent on every hand, - with its red, bluff banks, the sediment of its red waters marking the timber along its course, while the driftwood, lodged in trees and high on the banks, indicated what might be expected when she became sportive or angry. That she was merciless was evident, for although this crossing had been in use only a year or two when we forded, yet five graves, one of which was less than ten days made, attested her disregard for human life.It can safely be asserted that at this and lower trial crossings on Red River, the lives of more trial men were lost by drowning than on all other rivers together.”
This video retells the story of a cowboy funeral after another man drown on the Adams’ drive.
Charles Siringo
“When we got there she was “ bank full ” and still rising. It was at least half a mile to the opposite side and drift wood was coming down at a terrible rate, which made it dangerous to cross. But the wagons being over made it a ground hog case - or at least we thought so. The old lead steers went right into the foaming water without a bit of trouble and of course the balance followed…We were all — that is we fellows on the points out in swimming water when Henry Coats ' horse went under, which scared the leaders, causing the whole herd to turn back amidst terrible confusion. Coats came very near drowning.”
George C. Duffield
“(June) 31st. Swimming Cattle is the order. We worked all day in the River & at dusk got the last Beefe over & am now out of Texas - This day will long be remembered by me - There was one of our party Drowned to day (Mr Carr) & Several narrow escapes & I among the no.”
Stampedes, rustlers, and drowning were just a few of the dangers cowboys faced on a cattle drive. There were the horses, lightning strikes, disease, and pure accidents. However, the dangers discussed in this article do seem to be the most common throughout a sample of primary sources.
At the end of the day, cattle drives were tough endeavors undertaken by tough men. In a world without any social safety net to catch people, it was a risk many had to take. It’s also important to note that many wanted to take the risk, and that life on the trail wasn’t all bad. Perhaps it was best summed up by none other than legendary Charles Goodnight when he said:
“It was a rough, hard, adventurous life, but was not without its sunny side, and when everything moved smoothly the trip was an agreeable diversion from the monotony of the range.”
If you want to learn more about life on a cattle drive you are sure to appreciate the History of the West series.
