A big part of the boulevard and park system is to maintain up. Maintain it. As they get older, they take maintenance. You have to rebuild things. Whether it is the pavement, curb, drain structures. The original plan, a lot of it done by George Kessler was treeplanting. Multiple rows of trees were planted on boulevards. Trees have a lifespan. We have to maintain. The biggest challenge today is maintenance. I think generally speaking, kansas city citizens appreciate the park and boulevard system. We strongly believe that to be true. We would encourage anybody who does not appreciate it to appreciate what they have. If you live here, you take it for granted. Announcer our cities tour staff recently traveled to kansas city, missouri, to learn about its rich history. Learn more about kansas city and other stops on our tour at cspan. Org\citiestour. You are watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. Musancer Panhandle Plains Museum curator discusses the origin of the american cowboy. He talks about the Common Misconceptions caused by the iconic cowboy image from hollywood movies and time novels. Novels dime novels. It is a great crowd. Is a festive atmosphere. We had a great presentation for you tonight. I work at the Public Affairs department. It will be my honor to introduce a guy i have gotten to know and really come to admire a lot here in the past few months, working with him. Some of you may have been through our new exhibit, open just under two weeks ago on the ,econd floor in the map gallery cattle, cowboys and culture. If you have not, i would strongly urge you to. It is a fascinating collection. I am talking about a large collection of artifacts, art and other objects that illuminate the connection that i was not aware of, down through history through the cattle days, between the city of kansas city and amarillo, texas. Out onto thelled first floor. Saddle have seen the big. It is a terrific exhibit. Point, be remiss at this before getting to michael, if i the introduce the man woman standing in the back. She is our Library Art Exhibit erector. She has worked director. She has worked with michael. She does a terrific job. Responsibleeally for the most part, for this exhibit being here and bringing it to us. He is the associate director of Curatorial Affairs and the art and western heritage at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in canyon, texas, just south of amarillo in the texas panhandle. It is the Largest History Museum and the state of texas. If it is the largest in texas, you Better Believe it is large. He is also a lecturer in western american studies at west texas university. He oversees art, weapons, military, sports and cowboy and ranching collections at the museum. It, it is like working at a giant 20 story. Toy story. I call it stealing money. Michael is here from here, from the kansas city area. He is a graduate of oak park high school. He had a double major in art history. After college, he worked at what is now the smithsonian and art museum in washington dc. Ultimately, he landed at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in texas. From the time he was a kid, michael says he was always fascinated by historical objects. He collected in loans and relics. He was always fascinated by the American West, growth wanting to be a cowboy or a pro football player. He went to art school because he drawing horses. Here is how big he has gotten. He was invited to dinner at the george w. Bushh and laura bush during the second bush presidency. The museum have loaned a couple house forto the white display there. Michael turned him down. It turned out that he wouldve had to miss his sons graduation from high school. He turned down the invitation to the white house, so good for him. He knows a lot, an awful lot about cowboys. He is revered in the amarillo area for the Living History Program that he presents as cowboy mike. I think he has come tonight as cowboy mike. I was making the joke. You may remember a few years ago when we did the big read on true grit. Our director was very fond on putting on an eye patch and a duster. He looked cool. This guy looks like he has strung some presence. He is going to set it straight about cowboys. He is going to give us their true history. One spoiler. Shooters are not involved. I say this all the time. Of the programming, the public programming that we do at the library. All of the speakers that we bring in are really good. The ones who really stand out are the ones who bring a pass in. Passion that is infectious they love talking about it and they love sharing it with other people. We have gotten that from michael in the several months he has worked with us on the exhibit. You are going to get that tonight. You are in for a real treat. Please welcome, michael. [applause] michael thank you for coming. It is a really nice crowd. That includes, not only people in kansas city, but some of my dearest friends are here, also some of my family. Few minutesprised a ago. I have been doing the cowboy mike program for almost a decade. It stems from what he was saying. Correcting history and being a public historian. Our job as public historians is to take history out of academia and put it in the hands of the general public to help tell good stories. That is basically what i have to do as a living as to tell good stories. I make valuable american dollars doing that. They keep paying the, so it is working out well for somebody. When this project fell into my believer ingreat giving back. I think it is vital for us to give back to our communities. I am able tocause give back to the two places that are my home. Back tortunity to give my hometown is a great thing for me. I remember as a little kid, my grandparents lived in what used to be rosedale. We would drive by on the highway. Also the big bull that got moved since it moved away from kansas city. Not a cowboy, but i get to play one on tv. I have come to know cowboys. I have had the honor to handle artifacts that long to some of the greatest cowboys who ever lived, or those you are never heard of. Those are the ones that interest me are the less heard of. It is not about the famous ones. It is about the ones that did the work. That is what i hope to convey to you today is this is a typo perk special type of person that is misunderstood. E was willing to take a risk by letting us do a presentation here two years ago this month. We came and gave a presentation about cattle cowboys and culture. We do not know how big it was going to get. We kept looking at our collection and finding connections every time we opened a page. Every rock we overturned, we found two more rocks. One of the things as a student of the American West i believe strongly in, i see this in my hometown. Turning your back on your history is the worst thing you can possibly do. The able to come back to kansas city and seeing what is happening in amarillo now, you are a cap town. Town. Ter cow embrace it. I am going to evangelize for you today. I do not care what you build, you cannot escape your route. Mbrace them the Great Stories in kansas city. Use them. Leverage them. I do this program for little bitty critters come all the way to the critters that are 75 years old. Every time i do it, i watch people turn into children, whether they are four years old or 84 years old. That is fact. I will take you through the history of cowboys. You may agree or disagree. There will be time for questions. Will try to stay on point as best i can, ok . I am a technophobe. We will see how this goes, all right . Here we go. Nott of all, cowboys were certain things. They were not gunfighters. There were not crimefighters. Hey were not bank robbers they did not come into town to shoot things are, generally speaking, ok . This is from our panhandleplains collection. Shoot for kansas city. This cowboy in this little ribbon. It is only this big. It is hand painted, as if all cowboys carried that kind of nonsense. Cowboys are the most misunderstood of all americans in certain respects but they were also in the cow country, whichi live today and still exists largely from texas all the way to western canada, they live date particularly dangerous life and did the work no one wanted to do because wages are low. Was dangerous, and dirty. Times it wast of boring. But they were responsible for someone elses property. An importantling void. As america expanded to the west, we grabbed big chunks of territory. Cow country is generally all of this in here. Generally the great planes. Kansas city, the gateway to the great planes. That is key to understanding. After the civil war, there was a for feed cattle in the United States and written. Cattle was left to run wild in texas. By 18g 10 million animals 65. Did other side of the equation, all of the wild horses were there. 2 million wild horses in 1865. Most cowboys came from texas. Ill get to the two ways of going west. At the calvary was there, and the cowboys were there. And the cows were there. This is the time of what we are talking about, Texas Longhorns. To breatheattempts animals to make a better quality of meat and kansas city plays a big role in that. It is hard to stand unless you go to western kansas, montana, wyoming, northwest texas. It is as simple as this this is what i tell the school kids. I have to give my lectures to the schoolkids. Everybody say it with me we int got no trees. Remember that. It is important. No place to hide. So cattle, this great commodity, is seen by an illinois businessman named joseph jean mccoy who realizes the way to product to that great martin in the northwestern United States and europe, you had to get them to market. There were rob roads in texas but it was three times as expensive to ship your cattle by rail as it was to drive them to the new railhead in the Central Pacific, the first one was in abilene. The original cattle trail came up to texas through sedalia. Shawnee trail is to the east, but almost immediately by the 1850s, here illinois had quarantine against texas cattle, then missouri, that missouri is cattlef from texas because of texas fever. They carried a tick that would killed investigated cattle. But they could enter the state on rail car. That is why the Central Pacific is out there because eastern Kansas County also instituted 14. So texas cattle on the were not welcome into the part of the country we recognize. So count has moved west. Abilene for a while, then dodgerth, wichita, then city. You can see the great cattle trails. One of the things you need to remember is the cattle trails went right through command through comancheria. Andas dominated by fear trade. So what to do do . You signed a treaty with these comanches that did not understand. You tell them they have to give to this. This and move we all know nobody wants to go to oklahoma on purpose, right . [laughter] Michael Coleman that did not go over too well but nevertheless this is what happened. Michael that did not go over too well, but nevertheless it is what happened. By the time the trail started 18651890,inued from we believe there were probably about 35,000 cowboys involved in this. But nobody knew what a cowboy was a nobody knew what a trail drive looked like it given what you see here in harpers magazine. There aint no cow trail that ever looked like that. And Texas Longhorns did not look anyhow. Sey cattle what was a cowboy . What was cattle . That was something that under lexicon. Ar nobody really knew. Popular culture gets a hold of it quickly. West show asld literally part of the wild west. Wild west cowboys. Eventually, dime novels pick up on this in the 1880s and 1890s. Either way, jesse james was not a cowboy. He was a psychopath with a gun. That is really important. He was never a cowboy. It you see a blending between well west heroes and cowboys and cowboys get sucked into that. With they gets a jump publication of the virginian and pretty soon you have a tsunami of western fiction sweeping the country. Everybody who can pick up a pen is writing cowboy stories and artists supplying illustrations, most of which by artist to have never been out there. In this case, the artist went to colorado and worked for nine days and then went back to pennsylvania and wrote stories. 1930s,ly, a in that this is what they said cowboys did according to western fiction. Then hollywood got involved with pictures. This is one of my favorite pictures showing gary cooper getting his lipstick applied so he can play a texan. So true west magazine a couple of years ago decided they would look into this and sort of a scholarly way. Where was cowboy ground zero . Where did it start . There were three different people writing about this. In my own research, heres what im about to tell you. Cowboy ground zero starts in spain with the beginning of burning cattle through north america roughly about 1521 into what was now new mexico. They were brought on ships and turned loose. They did not castrate the bull calves. Cows do what cows do and they made a lot more calves. That is important to remember. These are hurting techniques were learned by someone. I always ask students this one, who taught the spaniards had be cowboys . Ok . It was north africa. Air] up in the air it was about maneuverability on the horse, quick mobility. Direction after direction. You Wear Clothing that allows you to move. North africans taught what would become spanish geppettos. But they also did not use rope. A blade. A long pole with a crescent shaped blade on the back. Because these wild cowboys were running everywhere and there are mexico, they simply would flick that hawking blade and cut hamstrings and they would drop on the spot. Which of them there, render the tallow, leave the meat to rock. What does that sound like to you . What else happened in north america about a couple hundred years later . Absolutely. That is what happened to the buffalo. Same thing. In . E does the rope come it comes from west african slaves who used the rope to capture in herd animal they roped from foot. It is a blending of technology from north and west africa the gives us a cowboy we know today. This is cowboy ground zero. Africa. That is vital for us to understand where they go. They were not owners of ranches. They were mixed blood people. When i want to tell you folks, the first cowboys were probably indians. Uhoh. That flies in the face of a lot of stuff, doesnt it . They did not wear boots. They might wear shoes. Some did not even use stirrups. They learned how to use a rope. Ultimately, mexican cowboys can do things with rope no one can do today. I laid out on here in the front and i want you to come look, i have a cattle rope that as you can see is about 80 feet long. S rode with this about 2030 feet long. Half the size, ok . It is all about how you manage the rope. The style learned will become part of it. Wraparound. When you rope the animal. I am going to try to show you how to do this. Pretend this is a cow. It is all about securing your loop. Afternoon. S the wind caught it. Do you see that . The wind caught it. [laughter] michael so i will capture the animal here. Rope back and forth theoretically. Goinghem a little room back in because you do not want to hurt their self esteem. [laughter] vaquero tradition is very much alive and well in california. In texas, they did what is called tie it fast. I fast and drag the animal where you want it to go, you dont care about his feelings. That is the important distinction. Hispanic cowboys were very much equation. E but they were paid about one third the wages of other cowboys. This is important. There were africanamerican cowboys. About a quarter of them were black or hispanic, mostly black. There were American Indian cowboys. They raised their own cattle in indian territory. Comanches, after they moved on to the reservations in southwestern oklahoma, insisted that any cowboys grazing herds on their only and had to be indian cowboys. They did not like texans. Imagine that. Them weref euroamericans of some type. As you can see in this photograph of dodge city. Denmark, germany, france, all over the place. Most of them were attracted by the stories they read that made it sound very exciting. Most men the came out and tried to be cowboys did not last. It was just too hard. It was too difficult. It was dirty. All kinds of Different Things, they really do not last. 1880s youry the mid people doing this sort of thing, posing for photographs in dodge city. None work cowboys. Just dressed this way for a picture. Laughter] michael but notice this. This is the key. The firearms. Ok . I am not antigun. I am not. The whole idea that cowboys were bristling with violence, the historical record is not buried out. Of cowboy own to go in owned a gun, and most did not, they were advised to keep it on the on the backbecause course a firearm is dangerous. Most cowboys, if they owned one, it was civil war surplus like this one here. They had a tendency to do this chain fire. Ok . As you can see in this photograph, those are rounds jammed between the frame and the cylinder when chainfire happens. Imagine this happening on the back row horse, ok . The key to understanding all this stuff is it was also against the law in texas after 1871 for you to carry a gun. You could not do it. It was against the law except for a couple of your frontier open to hostile fire. They took a toll as you crossed indian territory. That is important remember. However, when they got close to oklahoma it was better to be armed. It is always better to be armed when he going to oklahoma, right . Likewise, most of the ranches had roles for bidding carrying even on your person or in your set aback a pistol, dagger, boring knife, other instruments for defense. Could getords, you fired if you were carrying a gun. Most had roles against whiskey, women, whichg with basically ruined the western you have ever seen, right . Ruined all of them. Areere is the question you more likely to have better use for a claw hammer then a sixshooter. You just dont need it. Theyre dangerous. And they are heavy. They bank a on your leg. I know there are people who do competitive shooting and one is a friend of mine in the audience right here but that is all mythology. Even cowboys themselves started to believe what Popular Culture told them. But this is my favorite. You might not think it was a six shooter never camp, but let a fuss start and in two minutes every mothers son would have there been on. But this right here was done from the back force. You dont need a gun. You need a good rope. You can see in this photograph, i cowboy had to wear his toolkit because once you is on the back of a horse, there is no going back for a pickup if they forgot something. There is no pickup. Once you are mounted, you stay there all the livelong day. I cowboy might change horses five or six times a day because horses get tired, too. Equipment on your your clothing. A count i cowboy wears a big a cowboy wears a big hat. Its like an umbrella. Now they are straw. By stetson. Ill call boys called all hats stetsons. All of the cowboys called all hats stetson hats. All of them were stetsons. Trained to your head. They were proud of Different Things that happen to them over time, ok . Here is for you teachers, you can use this in your mouth component when youre tired my used is. And would go to the store buy a yard of cotton cloth. Whatever they had. That was a first aid did. You could use it to tie on your probably tomuffs, blow their nose. Also a sling. Because you need to remember there were no doctors out there. You broke your arm, you had to fix it yourself. Get a today, if you go hangnail, you go to the urgent care center. There were no doctors there. Heavys did not wear sheepskin coats like you see in the movies. It is impossible to move around in a big coal like that so you wore a short cotton or wool jacket like mine. Nearly all of them were a vast because it keeps the body warm and allows you to move to do your work. It has pockets for your stuff. Especially your cell phone. [laughter] michael to text her friends, im still moving the heard, what are you doing . Rankbody smelled just as as the next guy. Likewise, they were not clean shaven. They were bearded. Most of you men when you get up in the dark, do you shave in the dark . There aint no mirrors out here and there aint no lanterns. So they were bearded, and they also cut their own hair like i do. I put a lot of product in today. Does it look good . Cowboys did not look like brad pitt. They were dirty and they smell bad, ok . You keep your shirt on to keep it or not. You might have two shirts, one to wear to work and went to go to town in. To protect your arms from running on burns and rope burns. Or chaps, leather pants. Initially in spain they were trousers. On leather only hollywood stars were brave enough to wear that stuff. And they had spring buckles that you can take them in enough. Cowboys usually took these out because they were hot. You could get covered with all kinds of stuff, blood, but generally the cowboys took them up because they are hot, ok . Trousers, cowboys war will pants called california pants. Generally they were plaid and they look kind of cool. Or cotton duck and it was like wearing a tent. The only kind of denim trousers cowboys ever wore were made by levis. Touchers, they would not for that marketing. Wranglers, you think those are cowboy pants, take them home and go burn them in the backyard and get yourself a pair of proper cowboy p. M. s. Levis only had one back pocket. Until 1922. They also had no belt loops. Wear suspenders to give them up, this is an opportunity to accessorize. There were not many good makers and texas. They came to kansas city. Needwere usually up to the to protect the lower leg. Sometimes pointed, sometimes not. I hear for short ones. And they usually would buy a of monkey. 50 pair wards spores. Wards some monkey spurs. You buy your spurs, different places. That is pretty much the cowboy kid. No gun, didnt need one or kept it in the saddle bag or check box. Whiskey . Drinking not so much. When the cowboy got paid, he would go to the general store and buy cans of peaches and eat so many he would get sick because he craved the sugar. Twos. S had a sweet drinking whiskey, not on the job. Rarely on the trail. This a bit, there were three or four different types of cowboy. Drovers. Ds, for a certain amount of dollars toy would take the cows certain places. And there were ranch hands. Seasonal, day workers who were shopkeepers during the day who really wanted to be cowboys. Drovers, on the trail drives, usually supplied their own courses. A cowboy rarely owned his own horse. The ranch did. Cowboys were always singing, right . Singing around the campfire. Singing to the cows. Spookywere notoriously and dumb as a box of rocks. Boy check was usually prettyas usually inexpensive. Beans were an expensive. I like to tell the kids cowboys requested a salad and a always got what kind of dressing . Ranch they did not order beef steak because they ate beef steak for three months. They wanted fried chicken. Most of them were southern boys and they grew up eating fried chicken, loved fried chicken. But they couldnt eat them out there. Cowboy wages between 18801930 work one dollar a day. One dollar a day. . 30. Can cowboy got a black cowboy got a dollar a day. Went on, the cowboys strike. Remember what i told you to do what i told you, the cowboys did not own their own horses . Here is the ultimatum, we actually on this. This is the only time in history cowboys went on strike. They loved Walking Around on the horse in all that fresh air for one dollar a day, who would not want to do that . Labor. Ked for a raise in they all got fired because by this time, 18 83, virtually every cattle ranch in north america was owned by british capitalists. Nearly every single one. And they did not see any difference to 20 hybrid man on back for us and a man who worked in a shoe factory in london. They didnt care. They fired him. Most of them became blacklisted and never worked as cowboys again. Linesthis time, the rail stretching between amarillo and kansas city are open. I think this is a very telling statistic on this next slide. Hit is when the real lines amarillo from here. Within a year, and have million head of cattle. In two years, one million animals. You are account town, be a cow town you are a cow town. Yet cow town. The trail driving changed. Cowboys would get on the train after the cattle are loaded in special cattle cars and die there right in caboose is our special cars to take care of the animals like they did on the toil previously all the way amarillo city. They were responsible for somebody elses animals. The sense of responsibility that is large lost in many respects today. They did not come to town to shoot things up because the whiskey was not available until they got in and they were probably eating peaches. They did not have guns because their wagon buses would not let them have them will stop the average age of the American People was 1525 years old. Just kids. American cowboy was 1525 years old. They were little, ok . I am six foot four inches so i am way taller than the cowboys. Usually 1201 50 pounds. Usually they were small because the horses were small. With all due respect to the american Quarter Horses as vision, they did not ride those until 1950. Ok . A were little. A big cowboy did not last very long because he wore out the horse and believe me, the horse was far more important to the ranch owner. But if you give liquor and a gun to a kid, what do you think is going to happen . People were smarter than that. Most towns had ordinances against carrying firearms in towns. Were there women cowboys . Yes. , around the turn of the last century. She were kind of a uniform, as you can see. Always sporting a gun, as you can see. She did not wear boots, usually leisa shoes, high heels. Marketers use this, recognizing there were women who did do work rk, did you cow did do cow work. It reminds us of what Ginger Rogers said about fred astaire, i did everything he did only in high heels and backwards. About 1905 when the new woman sweeps the United States and suddenly women are riding astride and pushing cows, writing barking horses, performing in wild west shows, performing in rodeos. Women were essential part of rodeos until about 1943, when gene autry the singing cowboy himself basically barred women afterodeo competition Bonnie Mccarroll was killed on a bucking horse and others were injured, he said it was not ladylike. He created the whole grand rodeo and great entry thing. I am just a report of that, did not do that. Im just telling you. But there are ranch women today, they call them cowboy girls but they are cowgirls. From western nebraska, ive got a couple sisters, the kelley sisters. Conclude with this, there is his belief that cowboys do not exist. The cowboys are gone. Remember, a man wearing a western hat is not a cowboy necessarily. I was in the amarillo airport at 6 00 this morning and i was the only one sporting a cowboy hat until i saw one another. When my friend walked into eastern kansas two graces with their presence, they were wearing the correct kind of male headwear as you can see over here. That is good. Caps, i meanimme hats. I digress. Exist . Oys on march 6 of this year, alamo alamo day in texas, three prairie fire swept across the panhandle. Out there they go rapidly and unpredictable. Cowboys lives were always about trying to anticipate what comes next and being ready to take action for something elses property. Three cowboys, this young man cody was a cowboy in the middle of that and his fiancee Cindy Wallace was in the middle of was ind Sloan Everett the middle of that. They rode into the prairie fire to rescue 40 mama cows and their calves because they could not stand to let them burn to death. Ok . This quote is really telling about the cowboy philosophy that most of us do not understand. Why in the world would you do that for someone elses property , right . You dont think twice about it. That is the underscore of what a true cowboy is. And all three of those cowboys burned to death. All of them. All three of them. When they found them, the only thing left were there boots and leather belts. All of their clothing and hair had burned completely off of them. Sydney and cody had written out together on a horse named junior. Sloan went out on another horse. Junior had to be put down. The only thing left of his other was a burn little crisp. He came back to the house, ok . These are true cowboys. Still exist today. The true cowboys in america are buried in unmarked graves all across the American West. They are not the famous ones. Theyre not the ones who made it into the dime novels of the wild west shows or into the movies. They are the ones whose names we do not know who bought a product that built america because america was built on its stomach and these cattle were absolutely vital to the building of america including kansas city and amarillo, texas. But it is hard for us to understand that. Will he said it better than anyone he aint wrong but hes different. Hes just different but his thingsont make him do that you think is right. Thank you. [applause] michael how did i do on time . Questions . Got a wait for the microphone. I i dont know the answer, will make up a good story. Could you please talk about wereost of the ranches owned not by american interests, but by did you say british why didnt some big financiers from back in northeast or some other parts of america and up owning all of that at the time . Michael a great question. We deal with this in the spring and a separate program. But a book called how to get rich on the planes was published by a u. S. Army officer and the army was probably in collusion with the cattle industry in my opinion. The british capitalist saw the opportunity because the book was published in great britain. They literally lined up. Biggesthe famous ranches in texas was entirely on by a british conglomerate who thought they were going to get rich. They should have visited first. The frying pans, the turkey haves, the ranches you may for to. Some of them were actually managed from here. Tacre was managed from here. The turkey tracks was managed from here. They thought they would make a killing, they did not. Most of them did not get a return on investment but it was an opportunity. A great question, why did american entrepreneurs not do it . A great question, thank you. I have to ask, what is your and yourwestern movie favorite western tv series, and why . Ok. Michael there is a difference between western and a cowboy movie. A cowboy movie can be a western but a western is not necessarily a cowboy movie. My favorite cowboy movie is john cowboys. D the does little boys, and the opening scene, theyll show up with big guns and he makes them put them all in a box on top of the wagon, right . That is as accurate as it can be. Ahn wayne of course was not cowboy, he was an actor. I meant to say this. I have one had. John wayne might have six hats during the show. That is important. The most recent cowboy movie i. Nk is good as open range you have to understand the context. It is a great story. Unforgiven is a tv show. Not a cowboy movie. Gunsmoke, of course. It was absolutely true. Namedst course was gunsmoke as a matter fact. Yes maam. Average age was 1525. Did they live much longer than michael a great question. The average age of the american cowboy was 1525 years old. Most of the time they stopped because it was too hard. They make no money, they got hurt, and heres the other thing that flies in the face of the great westerns. Most of them wanted to be farmers because with farms come wives, then children, then schools, then towns. Here is my belief, the open range time, the ranchers who started the big ranches and the latter part of the 19th century, window was very narrow. They had to make as much money as fast as they could because they knew the farmers were coming in the towns were coming. So they did, they truly did. Probably haveou ancestors my great grandpa went up the trail to dodge city about 12 times. Grandpa probably was telling you a lie. Because most of them did it once or they quit halfway because it was too dangerous. Texas is a letter of rivers and andy time you cross a river because most cowboys could not swim, they were terrified of water. Terrified of drowning, the other one was getting up high not in a spur. That is why they wrote up high. They rode on the instep. They sent there boots all the way into the stirrup this way, ok . But if you were unlucky enough to get your foot hung up in the stirrup and you got pinched off your horse, they will not stop. And i know a cowboy who was dragged to death through a canyon and he was in pieces by the time they caught the horse, ok . I tend to over dramatize stuff but that is the truth. It was just not what they thought it would be. Most of them were kids. I am going to go be a cowboy. Wrangler, talked about that. He just ran away. They were just kids looking for an adventure generally. I was talking to some of my friends involved in history, the dangers of driving a heard of through missouri around the time of the civil war. Auld you talk about that little bit . Michael what he is talking about is the risk of driving cattle through southwestern southeastern kansas in that corner because during the civil war because of the bushwhackers and the j hawkers and all of that. Hold the war, that was a of her. That is where the cattle were coming from and they literally were bushwhacked. A lot of cowboys killed and the herd stolen and brought up to kansas city and sold. It was basically condoned Cattle Rustling is what it was because those eastern kansas counties and the western missouri counties did not want those animals on the half coming through there and killing domesticated cattle so it was condoned largely. It did happen. That does lead to some of them going armed but generally they were only armed in the front or counties and someone. They were dangerous times. Great presentation. Thank you. Very educational. Some point,wboy at wouldnt it become synonymous with just someone who lives out west as opposed to someone who dedr it cattle cattle. It is a term for anyone who wears boots, hats, lives out west. Michael the etymology of the Popular Culture no word in the english language. However, one scholar says it is a scotch irish word because in scotland or ireland there was some hurting practices on foot, usually with a small stick. Herding practices on foot, usually with a small stick. But as a standand for all western people is largely due to what i told you about Popular Culture. Blame buffalo bill, right . The casino blended two Different Things together, ok . The next thing you know they are gunfighters, bank robbers, crimefighters, superheroes and stuff. It is a blending. Then i will take as little but further in recent times, it is both popular and a throwaway party line. Il hes just a cowboy. Up. Wboy here is something you will learn in cal country, theyll say country,ke in cal hell make atry hand. But the blending is a late 19th century plant. 1880s or so. Can you tell me how long it railto move the cattle by from texas up to kansas city and when you said the cowboys ride and take care of the cattle on the railroad cars, what does that entail . Michael every couple days they would get them off the cars and feed and water them. They were cramped into the cattle cars. One of the things the cowboys would do was to climb in there with the cattle because some of them would it down and once they are down they could die as so they had to get them to their feet. So it was literally just a different kind of trail. They were on a mechanized vehicle. It would take about four days, give or take. 570 miles. We installed the exhibition, i found a way to drive the original Santa Fe Railway as close as i could with a truck and it took a little while. I was glad i did it. Sideso you know, a little thing, because of Texas Railroad law, santa fe could not build directly into texas. They had to establish a completely different appropriation with an office in texas called the Kansas City Railroad of texas. It was very much part of the santa fe line but from indian territory which is in higgins, texas, down to amarillo, that was a separate company. And denver city also should cattle to kansas city through fort worth. What kinds or what breeds of horses were used for driving cattle . Was there a certain breed that over others . Michael i Must Immediately had thisrealized they great surplus of Texas Longhorns. The meat was not very good. So almost immediately, durhams, they terms, longhorns, started crossbreeding. Most of the animals that come to kansas city are not pure bred, they are not pure longhorn, there are about half. So the meat quality was better. As for his horses were concerned, the mustangs improvement started almost immediately as well. There were third breath brought in, standard breads, and they were crossed usually because the quality of the spanish mustang, surefooted nose, hardiness, the ability to go long time without water was something they wanted to maintain. Eight herford cal cant walk across the street without collapsing. Same as some of the horses, out of breath within a couple blocks. Of the spanish mustangs could ride forever. And they are tiny. Not much bigger than the. They used to say. They were little. The problem with the mustang was that they were wild, ok . It is in the historical record that two out of every three mustangs would die after was captured. Heart. Lled it a broken you can do without whatever you want. With that wouldve you want. They were mostly mustangs. Related to horses, the last herd of wild mustangs were i live was captured in 1907 on the train to kansas city to be trained as harness horses and sold therefore seven dollars an animal and then theyre out of texas because what happened was while horses were considered vermin. You would shoot the study in first and killing and either drive the rest of them off a cliff or shoot them with a winchester. They all got pushed into new mexico, las vegas. So every wild horse today is descended from texas mustang, every one of them. They came from spain to mexico into texas and then spread. You mentioned native americans and the treaties. How did they strike those treaties . Who was doing the striking . Michael what you mean striking . The native americans had to communicate with somebody about how to drop the treaty draw. P the treaty and with home michael treaties were u. S. Indian policy and treaties are always struck between sovereign nations of the u. S. Government recognized the indians were sovereign nations, otherwise they would not use treaties, they were just for some outoftheway. So is substantively they are you with foreign nation, right question marks and add use interpreters. And using interpreters youre going to get confused, never fails. Native comanche is very hard to understand. There are very few native comanches because today, for example. So, leaders from all of the tribes were brought in. Indians learned pretty quickly that if you made a treaty with the u. S. Or British Government of the french government or threatened. U got you might not understand what you just put your mark on. They call it touching the pen. You put a mark on a piece of paper, wheres my stuff . I speak for the comanche nation, wheres my stuff . I know it sounds trade but that is the truth. Trite, but that is the truth. And they would go back and say, i just signed a treaty with the whole comanche nation. Relate was just one guy. Treaties that a couple things, we will feed you, hows you, you move into a corner of oklahoma and we will provide all of these tools so you can guess what . Stop being the greatest warriors of the planes and beef farmers. Were going to take away your horses and everything about your way of life into get to live in a log house. What a great life, right . However, they would also they were also views they were also assured there would be no buffalo hunting below the river. They did not stop. Lodge, kansas, sometime if you have never been there. A pretty interesting place. The western painters such as remington and russell, which one of the painters get the most accurate portrayal of cowboys . That is a tough question because they were both cultureis popular already. Remington at never been a cowboy. He tried to be. He was a she further and a bartender for a while. And a bartender for a while. He wanted to be a cowboy and he glorified cowboy. Russell was from saint louis. I think generally, russell is probably closer to being tourate i think its safe say. In terms of being the best painter, in my opinion hands down it is remington. Russell is more interesting. Throw james and there but he is known for his drawings and particular and he is a little bit later. Wouldve the skills that made it hand . That madee the skills a good hand . Michael you had to be good with a rope. Manage ao be able to horse. There were Different Levels of cattle hands, right . The lowest level is writing drag with all of the dust and mud in your face. Then you graduated to swing and flank and lead. Usually there were 1012 trail writers. Average drill ride about trail riders. About three ride weeks. The questions are really good because there is his idea that cowboys friend is his horse and they loved each other and all that stuff. A horse will bite you if he wants to. You mayont like you, think he likes you but he does not want you on a spec. A specially if it is in the morning. So in the morning was a rodeo all the time. Every morning it was a rodeo. You had to be able to stay on a pitching horse. There are stories should be riding along and the next thing you know the animal has exploded for no apparent reason and you are on the ground going, what the heck just happened . So the ability to stay on the saddle, doubt was great. You had to think quickly. Be responsible, be committed. A lot of men could not do it. Could just not do it for all of the reasons. Dangerous, dirty, no wages. That there were a lot that died along the trail. Unmarked graves. When they went back home, how did they tell the families that e 1525yearold michael they drowned, they usually did not get the body. They usually collected whatever belongings they had. A cowboy usually carried something called a war bag, personal possessions. They would gather them along and take them along with their wages up until that point and take them to the family. That happened a lot. Most cowboys were illiterate, they cannot read and write. When women show up, the women becomes their mother, sweetheart, nurse, girlfriend, and oftentimes there stenographer. Letter to my mother and tell her im still alive, ok . We take it for granted today, we have instant messaging. You send a message and start to have a heart attack if they dont answer and six seconds. You go years without a word and home, letter came from cowboys were so starved for news they would read a letter to live cell apart. You are obliged to read your letter from home a lot because not everybody got a letter. They read anything they could their hands on over and over again until it fell apart. Boring,ife was largely and largely was. You have been a great audience and asked great questions. Those cd exhibition. Go see the exposition. Thank you for coming. [applause] announcer youre watching American History tv. All weekend announcer youre watching American History tv. All weekend every weekend on cspan3. Like us on facebook. Tonight, talking about the about thef the hour director of the manhattan project. His entirebecause of work time experience, he became convinced that the only way for democracy to survive, the best way to beat our enemies and be a strong country was to have a great School System where we showed that democracy was better than dictatorship and that we would have sufficiently brilliant people, talented people in government, science, the way to do that was to the sat which he helped invent and implement across the country to produce what he thought were the kind of leaders, the kind of technically advanced people that we would need impositions of power if we were going to be a great nation in the hightech world that he foresaw. Approaching and that 1950s and 1960s. He had an extraordinary impact on american life. Announcer watch tonight on cspans booktv. Of American History tv is on cspan3 every weekend featuring museum towards, archival films, and programs on the presidency, the civil war, and more. Here is a clip from a recent program. The watergate hearings, that was the watershed event for news on public television. Up until that point, the stations and the public was generally divided over whether you even needed anymore news and Public Affairs on television beyond what was already there on commercial television. The Nixon Administration particularly did not think there news ined for any other public broadcasting. At the water gate hearings changed everything and the reason i changed was because there were several individuals who had the courage to make some really tough decisions and one of them was not to necessarily broadcast them gaveltogavel because many of the stations would not broadcast this live because they had educational tv on during the daytime. But somebody, and i was part of the mix, said why dont we run them at night . Repeat them at night. That was a big deal. A big decision. The people who were running pbs were nervous about it so they pull the stations. Very clevert in a way. We pulled them with a question that was kind of phrased in such a way do you want to be patriotic or do you want to be a jerk . [laughter] won. D we still barely time,meone said at the well the option it was summertime and pbs had no original programs to run it night anyhow he said, all that would run if they did not run the hearings would be talking,peaking people animals mating, and occasionally englishspeaking people mating and animals talking. [laughter] drag so why not replace it with watergate hearings so why not replace it with watergate hearings . We would do live all day, but we only had about maybe half the stations watching it. We were broadcasting