What Did Cowboys Actually Do All Day?

Forget the high-noon showdown. A real cowboy's day started before sunrise and was measured in cattle, dust and missing sleep, for about thirty dollars a month. Follow a trail crew from the cook's pre-dawn fire through point, swing, flank and drag positions, river crossings, stampedes and two-hour night guards. Then see the spring roundup and branding, the failed 1883 Texas Panhandle cowboy strike, the lonely winters of line riders, and how barbed wire and the 1886–87 winter ended the open range. Scenes are illustrative reconstructions of typical work. Pay, pace and crew size varied by outfit and year; figures are typical ranges from historical sources. Chapters 0:00 The movie cowboy versus the real one 0:32 Who was on the crew 1:23 Before sunrise 2:05 Catching a horse 2:40 Point, swing, flank and drag 3:26 Noon and the afternoon 3:47 Rivers and stampedes 4:16 Night guard 4:56 End of the trail 5:22 The roundup 6:07 A hundred hours a week 6:36 Winter 7:11 The end of the open range 7:47 What cowboys really did Research includes the National Park Service (Grant-Kohrs Ranch), Kansas Historical Society, Montana Historical Society, Smithsonian Magazine, the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, HistoryNet and E.C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott's memoir.