The last Saturday of July is the National Day of the Cowboy. Many of the first cowboys really were boys - at least, they were when they started out. The job was hard, dirty and dangerous - they had to quickly become men. The cowboy began in the Southwest. The Spanish created the first big …
Category: Westerners
Dignity Graces a South Dakota Riverbank
A new statue overlooks the Missouri River in the central part of South Dakota. Called Dignity, it’s a 50 foot tall image of a Native American woman and is made of stainless steel and glass. It is a magnificent work of art, Designed by Dale Claude Lamphere and erected recently, in September 2016. It …
The Emperor of the United States
California is known for some pretty odd characters. It started in the early days; the crazy time of the 49’ers brought out some outrageous personalities. One of the biggest was Joshua Abraham Norton - The Emperor of the United States. Norton was an Englishman that grew up in South Africa. He was a successful …
How to Wear a Cowboy Hat
One of my favorite writers published a piece that told the rules for wearing a cowboy hat. That writer is Bob Boze Bell, an Arizona cowboy who is also the publisher of True West Magazine. Now, I like wearing a cowboy hat; not only is there nothing better for shading your head and neck, …
Bundy Trials: A Message to the BLM
If you’ve been following the Bundy trials, you’ve probably noticed there’s a trend going on, and it is not the trend people might have expected. The trend is against the government - they are losing most of their cases. The Bundy trials, of course, are the result of a group of American cattle ranchers …
Responding to the Prarie Fires
Most of us in Agriculture are aware that areas of the midwest were devastated by massive wildfires in March of 2017. The fires were headline news for a couple of days, but those headlines faded quickly. Many people outside of agriculture had no idea just how unbelievably huge the fires were. The losses were …
Shep’s Story
I’d like to tell you an old story that still wanders the Montana countryside. It starts in the summer of 1936 when a Montana sheepherder fell ill. He was transported to the St. Clare Hospital in Fort Benton, where eventually his sheepdog, Shep, found him. The man was dying, and the dog, with the …
