I Wish I Knew How to Quit You!
Cowboys!
Welcome back to history class. When I first started college, I don’t remember why, but I made my roommate watch Brokeback Mountain with me. I think it was because I was going through a Jake Gyllenhaal phase. In the weeks following, we would make our unfortunate friends listen to us do the big scene with the whole “I wish I knew how to quit you!” thing. Since then, I’ve seen the movie about four more times. I also read the short story the movie is based on. It’s award winning for a reason. Very socially advanced for 2005 I must say. The acting is also amazing of course. I guess I never really thought about the fact that cowboys were still around during the 1900s. They always seemed like mythical creatures in my head. Anyway, in honor of the great film Brokeback Mountain, today’s episode is about the modern cowboy. Don’t forget to tune in Mondays at 11 on KSDT for history class live!
The modern cowboy doesn’t exist without the vaquero which doesn’t exist without the bringing of horses to the Americas. I’m taking a class on the age of sail (also called The Age of Sail), and I now understand how horses actually travelled. Old ships had this pulley system that would lift horses through a tarp under their stomachs and lowered them into the pit. It’s pretty easy to tell if an old ship was able to do this because of how the outside looks. You can see the system if it’s there. Anyway, back to horses. They were brought over in the early 1500s by Spanish colonizers. When the Spanish established ranches, natives were taught to use the horses to help reign in the cattle. Vaqueros in America primarily worked for hide and tallow companies in the West.
A big part of cowboy culture is language, which is regional. I could list all of the linguistic differences, but in the interest of time, I’ll focus only on the main title. Vaquero was still the term widely used to refer to these employees in several places, though cowboy and buckaroo (haha) were used interchangeably. Which word is used where is really just based on regional differenced. Cowboy is more used in the middle of the country in Texas and its surrounding area. Montana also uses cowboy. Some researchers thing buckaroo comes from the word “bukra” which means boss/white man in a dialect regional to Georgia. Black cowboys from the South would bring this west. Another consensus is that buckaroo was an Americanized form of vaquero. The word vaquero comes from the Spanish word for cow, vaca. I knew Spanish classes would help me one day! This was the early version of vaquero/cowboy culture. Brokeback Mountain takes place in Wyoming in 1963. It makes sense that cowboy is the dominant term used considering Wyoming is just below Montana.
Here is where the timeline of colonization becomes important. The U.S. didn’t annex Texas until 1845. California was acquired through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Montana was designated a U.S. territory in 1864. Based on all of this, it’s important to remember that Spanish and Mexican influence created the American cowboy. It’s just something to keep in mind.
Modern cowboy life is not uniform. On a ranch, there’s unlimited jobs that need to be done. Not all cowboys even work on horseback. Necessary jobs depend on where the cowboys are working. However, all cowboys need to be able to ride and use a rope well. On top of the basics, a cowboy needs to be able to take care of horse, including shoeing horses with horseshoes. In Brokeback Mountain, Jack and Ennis work for a rancher but not on a ranch. The boss has sheep that graze in the mountains over summer. He wants people who can herd the sheep over the summer. This job seems especially difficult. Imagine having to herd animals for months at a time with almost no human contact outside of the person you go with. You’d probably be eating a lot of canned goods too and be able to pitch a good tent. Good thing I like beans!
Cowboys on ranches live a very different life. They live on the ranch when they aren’t out dealing with animals. Ranches kind of operate like little towns. The resident cowboys get access to all kinds of privileges (for lack of a better word) like fresh meat and produce, medical care, and gas for their trucks as some examples. This of course all is on top of wages. Cowboys reside in bunkhouses on the ranch. They are usually temporary housings for seasonal work. Line camps are even more temporary in the form of canvas tents which is kind of what was going on with Brokeback Mountain. There are many different types of bunkhouses that are different depending on location. Cowboys do still have their own cars, clothes, and personal items, but the quantities are not the same as a regular renter. The job is not one that guarantees wealth and yet cowboys still work long days. There is no 9 to 5 schedule. Work is quite literally all the time with few days off. However, part of the pull that cowboy life has is the freedom. Cowboys aren’t restricted to socially approved jobs that restrict how they can live their lives. There aren’t traditional background checks on ranches anyway. Modern cowboys, including the version we have today, have the freedom to chose where they work and the type of labor they’re doing. Of course, they also get to be outside all the time. That’s probably pretty nice.
Did you guys know I have cowboy boots? I got them at Boot Barn because I got really into line dancing a few years ago and absolutely needed them. When I went to a line dancing bar recently, not everyone had boots on and I had been misled! Cowboys, unlike line dancers, actually need boots. The clothing worn by cowboys is an important part of cowboy history and culture. Fashion has impacted cowboy culture in some ways though some clothing is regional. Cowboys tend to avoid fancy clothes. Apparently, the sign of a new cowboy is through their clothes. Almost all cowboys wear jeans and a kind of boot, though how long the pants are, what kind of boots, if the pants are tucked into the boots or worn over, etc. all vary from cowboy to cowboy. Hats are also unique to the individual. A really nice cowboy hat will be specially shaped to the cowboy’s liking. My grandpa went to Montana when he was young and got a real cowboy hat. After almost 60 years, it’s lost its shape but it’s been passed down to me. One of these days I’m going to take it to a real hat person so they can shape it for me like a real cowboy. Bandanas are also necessary. They protect the wearer from all kinds of weather. They act sort of as a mask for dust as well. There’s also chaps, which have a million variations. They cover the legs for riding through brush and provide warmth during cold weather. People also wear them for show during rodeos. Many people make these from scratch and they make a really meaningful gift.
The diet of a cowboy sounds not great. Not that it isn’t healthy, more that it sounds unenjoyable for most people. I’d probably do okay because I kind of eat like Laura Ingalls Wilder and beans make an appearance at least 4/7 days a week. Cowboys actually ate a lot of beans. I didn’t make that up. They had fun names too like whistle berries. Do you think it’s because they make you fart? They’d be flavored with molasses too so they weren’t plain and boring. As I mentioned earlier, working on a ranch kind of guarantees beef. Beef jerky was also common since it could be taken on long trips like the ones mountain cowboys would have to do. This one makes me laugh: cowboys ate hardtack. If you don’t know what hardtack is, it’s kind of like matzo if it were 7 years old and worse. If you don’t get that analogy, hardtack is a cracker made of flour, water, and salt that could last for months if rodents or water didn’t get to it first. It’s really only palatable if dipped in liquid. It probably makes you super constipated but if cowboys eat beans all the time it might balance everything out. I don’t recommend it. Coffee was also a favorite and easy to make in the mountains. It was also cheap and easily accessible. When I looked up “what did cowboys eat” pretty much every answer was some variation of beans, coffee, biscuits (hardtack), meat, and dried fruit. Sounds pretty good to me (minus the hardtack).
A brief note on rodeos. Remember when I said all cowboys need to ride a horse and use a rope well? Rodeo originated as a way for cowboys to show off these skills. It was a direct result of the cattle industry. Rodeo technically got popular because of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. His show included Annie Oakley, the famous shooter. Women did not historically participate in regular rodeo, however rodeos were open to men of all races. As time passed, women were able to participate. In Brokeback Mountain, Jack marries champion rodeo rider Lureen Newsome. I think I went to a rodeo when I was a kid, but I don’t remember it all that well.
Obviously Brokeback Mountain focuses mostly on the relationship between the two main characters. Most cowboys worked in pairs or small groups, especially with the free roaming type of work. Homoerotic friendships were not uncommon. However, unlike the movie, these relationships did not really make cowboys think they were gay and change their lives. Rather, these relationships were seen more like filling a need. There’s been a great deal of research done on this subject alone, with many of the findings contradicting how modern society considers homosexuality. For one thing, cowboys were rarely considered to be less masculine because of these relationships. A lot of cowboy poetry and firsthand literature mentions the relationships partners had with each other. The way cowboys treated these relationships is really unique. There were no labels nor was there judgement. It sounds kind of freeing when you think about it. Cowboys could do what they wanted and it had little to no effect on their outside lives. Mysteriously, this part of being a cowboy disappeared with the rise of the Hollywood cowboy. The Hollywood cowboy instead is portrayed as the self-reliant hero who is strong, brave, masculine and definitely not gay. This is the mythical cowboy I imagined because this was the image presented to me through media. Something tells me Ronald Reagan would have rather died than play an honest to goodness cowboy. John Wayne too. Brokeback Mountain has been credited to representing real cowboy culture in Hollywood. I’m not saying it’s totally accurate, but it's one of the earlier examples of media embracing both homosexuality and masculinity. In doing research for this Substack, I read a really interesting research paper about this topic that I’ll link here.
Cowboy culture is extremely regional and extensive. Like I say in almost all my Substacks, this is not representative of full cowboy history. Brokeback Mountain does a lot to challenge the Hollywood cowboy. It’s hard to say if it had an effect on how people view the cowboy image. I think the movie has a lot to say about cowboy life but also LGBTQ+ history. I think a deeper analysis is meant for another episode another day because I’m writing this like a day before it needs to be made public. Ultimately, I want this Substack to serve as a contradiction to what the Hollywood cowboy represents and instead present a picture of a more realistic, but equally impressive, cowboy. That’s pretty much all I have for you all today. I’m going to go crack open a nice, room temperature can of beans. See you next week!
“9 to 5” by Dolly Parton
“Wide Open Spaces” by The Chicks
“Crazy” by Patsy Cline
“Stand By Your Man” by Tammy Wynette
“Once a Day” by Connie Smith
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver
“Take This Job and Shove It” by Johnny Paycheck
“Ridin’ My Thumb to Mexico” by Johnny Rodriguez
“El Paso” by Marty Robbins
“Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home” by Joe South