181 Fun Facts About Cowboy

In Spanish, vaquero is built on the word vaca, meaning what?

Vaca means cow; the suffix -ero marks a trade, and vaquero traces back to the Latin vaccarius, a cowherd.

The vaquero traditions behind the American cowboy trace back to Spanish settlers from which region?

Andalusia's open-range cattle tradition, carried by Spanish settlers to Mexico, is the root of the vaquero; its ranchers worked herds on horseback across dry, sparsely grassed land much like the Texas plains.

In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate crossed the Rio Grande into New Mexico with roughly how many head of cattle?

Oñate's 1598 expedition brought about 7,000 head of cattle across the Rio Grande into New Mexico; from that start, vaqueros drove cattle from New Mexico and later Texas to Mexico City.

In the British Isles between 1820 and 1850, the word 'cowboy' meant what?

In the British Isles from 1820 to 1850, 'cowboy' meant a boy tending the family cows; the American sense of an adult cattle hand on horseback came later.

Historically, cowboys could be hired as soon as they had the skills, often at what age?

Boys could be hired as cowboys at 12 or 13 once they could ride and rope; the youngest or lowest-status hand on a drive usually served as wrangler, tending the spare horses.

Black cowboys made up roughly what share of workers on the trail drives out of Texas?

Black cowboys made up about 25% of trail-drive hands out of Texas, roughly one in four, alongside many Mexican vaqueros; several thousand Black range workers rode the trails between the 1860s and 1880s.

The first large Texas cattle drive of 1866 aimed for a railhead in which Missouri town?

The 1866 drive aimed for Sedalia, Missouri, then the nearest railhead; armed farmers in eastern Kansas turned the Longhorn herds back, and the cattle sold for low prices.

Which Kansas town got a cattle-shipping facility in 1867 and loaded over 36,000 head that year?

Abilene, Kansas, got Joseph McCoy's cattle-shipping stockyards in 1867 and loaded more than 36,000 head that first season; the route up from Texas became the Chisholm Trail.

How many miles a day could a herd move and still keep a healthy weight?

A herd kept a healthy weight moving about 15 miles a day; cattle could cover 25 miles but lost so much weight they were hard to sell. The Chisholm Trail ran 1,000 miles.

On average, how many head of cattle made up a single herd on a drive?

A trail herd averaged about 3,000 head, worked by a crew of at least ten cowboys plus a cook and a wrangler; reaching the railhead could take two months.

On a cattle drive, the herd of spare horses was known as what?

The remuda was the drive's herd of spare saddle horses, each cowboy rotating through several mounts; the wrangler, usually the youngest hand, looked after it.

Besides feeding the crew, what other responsibility made the trail cook a respected figure?

The trail cook also carried the medical supplies and medicine and doubled as the crew's doctor; a good cook could make or break a trail crew's morale.

Which Texas rancher, the 'father of the Panhandle', invented the chuckwagon in 1866?

Charles Goodnight, the 'father of the Texas Panhandle', bolted a chuck box with drawers and a fold-down lid onto a surplus army wagon in 1866, creating the chuckwagon.

The chuckwagon was built from a Civil War surplus wagon made by which manufacturer?

Goodnight built his chuckwagon on a Studebaker wagon, a sturdy Civil War army-surplus model; the South Bend firm later became famous for automobiles.

Which pair drove their first herd from Fort Belknap, Texas, to Fort Sumner, New Mexico?

The pair Goodnight and Loving, Charles and Oliver, drove their first herd from Fort Belknap to Fort Sumner in 1866; the Goodnight-Loving Trail later extended north through Colorado to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The JA Ranch, founded in 1876 as the first ranch in the Texas Panhandle, sits in which landmark?

The JA Ranch sits in Palo Duro Canyon, where Charles Goodnight and John Adair founded it in 1876; Goodnight later raised a bison herd there that supplied bulls to Yellowstone in 1902.

Doan's Crossing, where Western Trail herds left Texas for Indian Territory, lay on which river?

Doan's Crossing on the Red River, near present-day Vernon, Texas, was where Western Trail herds forded into Indian Territory; Doan's store there kept a tally of passing cattle.

Which 1880s innovation let ranchers confine cattle to designated areas, helping to bring the open-range era to an end?

Barbed wire fenced the open range: from the 1880s ranchers could confine cattle to set areas, and the long trail drives faded out by the 1890s.

Texas Longhorns descend from cattle brought to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors starting when?

Columbus's second voyage landed the first cattle on Hispaniola in 1493; the Texas Longhorn descends from those Spanish herds and was rescued from near-extinction in 1927 by US Forest Service enthusiasts.

John B. Stetson founded his hat company in 1865 in which city?

John B. Stetson, a hatter's son, founded his company in Philadelphia in 1865 after a health trip west, where he had made himself a broad-brimmed felt hat.

According to writer Lucius Beebe, which hat, not the cowboy hat, was 'the hat that won the West'?

Lucius Beebe called the bowler 'the hat that won the West'; it stayed on in wind better than wide-brimmed hats and was worn by settlers, lawmen and outlaws alike.

Chaps were created in Mexico to replace which piece of riding equipment?

Chaps (chaparreras) replaced the armas, large leather flaps hung from the saddle pommel to drape over a vaquero's legs in brush; goatskin versions with the hair left on are chivarras.

What do cowboys call the small eye at a lariat's end that forms the loop?

The honda is the small eye, often reinforced with rawhide or metal, that the lariat's running end slides through to form the catch loop.

Which two early bootmakers, in Olathe, Kansas and Spanish Fort, Texas, made the cowboy boot famous?

Hyer and Justin, in Olathe, Kansas, and Spanish Fort, Texas, respectively, were among the first makers of the cowboy boot; its high heel kept the foot from slipping through the stirrup.

Florida's 'cracker cowboys' historically herded cattle with which tools instead of lassos?

Florida's cracker cowboys worked cattle with bullwhips and dogs rather than lassos, so they needed no saddle horn and often rode McClellan saddles; their beef fed the Confederacy.

The Hawaiian cowboy is called a paniolo, believed to be a Hawaiianised pronunciation of which word?

Paniolo is thought to be a Hawaiianised pronunciation of español, since Hawaiian has no 's' sound; the word was applied to the Mexican vaqueros who taught islanders to work cattle.

Which British captain gave cattle and sheep to Kamehameha I in 1793, starting Hawaii's cattle story?

British captain George Vancouver presented cattle to Kamehameha I in 1793; the king placed a ten-year kapu on killing them, and by the 1830s wild herds roamed the Big Island.

The mounted cattle herders of the French Camargue are called what?

The gardians of the Camargue herd the region's black bulls and white horses from the saddle, carrying a long trident-tipped pole as their working tool.

Which nickname did Black cowboy Nat Love claim to have won at an 1876 rodeo?

Nat Love said he won the name Deadwood Dick at a Fourth of July 1876 contest in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, though local papers record no rodeo; workmates had earlier called him Red River Dick.

Where was Nat Love born into slavery in 1854?

Nat Love was born into slavery in Davidson County, Tennessee, in 1854; he learned to read despite the laws, worked cattle out of Dodge City, and ended as a Pullman porter.

Buffalo Bill Cody founded his touring Wild West show in which year?

Buffalo Bill's Wild West opened in 1883 at Omaha, Nebraska; its trick riders and sharpshooters made the 'cowgirl' a public figure.

Rodeo cowgirl Fannie Sperry Steele rode rough stock like the men while wearing what?

Fannie Sperry Steele rode broncs in a heavy split skirt, more cumbersome than men's trousers, yet rode 'slick' with untied stirrups; she was Lady Bucking Horse Champion at the first Calgary Stampede in 1912.

Cheyenne Frontier Days, billed as the world's largest outdoor rodeo, was first held in what year?

Cheyenne Frontier Days began in 1897 as a one-day event and grew into a ten-day July festival built around what it bills as the world's largest outdoor rodeo.

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held every year in which Nevada town?

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering was first staged in Elko, Nevada, in 1985 by the Western Folklife Center and made the railroad and ranching town the capital of cowboy verse.

Which singing cowboy promoted a 'cowboy code' encouraging honourable behaviour, respect and patriotism?

Gene Autry wrote a ten-point Cowboy Code for his young radio and film fans, urging honesty, respect and patriotism, an image historians contrast with the rowdy reality of Texas drovers.

Which cowboys caught, broke and drove wild horses to market from the 18th century onward?

Mesteñeros, from mesteño (mustang), caught, broke and drove wild horses to market across the Great Plains, California's San Joaquin Valley and later the Great Basin from the 18th century on.

What did the chuckwagon's inventor call his bison-cattle crossbreed?

Charles Goodnight, the chuckwagon's inventor, crossed bison with cattle and called the hybrid cattalo; the male offspring were largely sterile, and the experiment never paid.

Which guide first established the Chisholm Trail's pathway in 1861, leading Union troops north?

Black Beaver, a Lenape guide, led Union troops out of Indian Territory along the route in 1861; Jesse Chisholm's wagon road followed about 1864, and the trail took Chisholm's name.

Jesse Chisholm, namesake of the great cattle trail, was a fur trader of which Native heritage?

He died in 1868, before the peak of the drives that used his route.

The Great Western Cattle Trail ran roughly parallel to the Chisholm Trail on which side of it?

The Great Western Cattle Trail ran to the west of the Chisholm Trail, from South Texas across the Red River into Kansas; John T. Lytle blazed it in 1874.

The Goodnight-Loving Trail crossed the Llano Estacado to reach the Pecos River where?

The Goodnight-Loving Trail crossed the Llano Estacado's waterless stretch to strike the Pecos at Horsehead Crossing, then followed the river upstream to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Oliver Loving died in 1867 after being wounded by which people on a cattle drive?

Oliver Loving was shot by Comanches on the Pecos in 1867 while riding ahead of the herd and died of gangrene at Fort Sumner; Goodnight carried his body home to Weatherford, Texas.

In which state was cattleman Charles Goodnight born in 1836?

He moved to Texas in 1846 and became a cowboy in 1856.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, home of the Hall of Great Westerners, is where?

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum stands on Persimmon Hill in Oklahoma City, founded in 1955 and opened in 1965; its Hall of Great Westerners honours figures such as Charles Goodnight.

Cattle towns sprang up at the junctions of livestock trails and what?

Cattle towns grew where the trails met the railroads, so herds could be sold to buyers and loaded onto cars for meatpackers and feeders in the east.

Which Kansas cattle town was named after a fort honouring a Civil War general?

Dodge City took its name from Fort Dodge, established in 1865 and named for Union general Grenville M. Dodge; the earlier Fort Mann stood nearby from 1847.

Chicago's Union Stock Yards, opened in 1865, earned the city what nickname?

Carl Sandburg's 1914 poem 'Chicago' opens 'Hog Butcher for the World', a title the Union Stock Yards earned; they ran on the South Side from 1865 to 1971.

Fort Worth's Union Stockyards opened for business in which year?

Fort Worth's Union Stockyards opened for business in 1890, fourteen years after the Texas and Pacific Railway reached the city in 1876 and made it a livestock hub.

Cowboy dish 'sonofabitch stew' was made mainly from what?

Son-of-a-bitch stew was built from a freshly killed calf's meat and offal, such as brain, heart, liver, sweetbreads and the 'marrow gut', simmered by the chuckwagon cook.

John B. Stetson left which home state for the West for health reasons before founding his hat firm?

John B. Stetson was born in Orange, New Jersey, the son of a hatter, and went west to Colorado for his health before founding his hat company in 1865.

Hatmaker John B. Stetson was the chief benefactor of a university in which state?

DeLand Academy in Florida was renamed Stetson University in 1889 after hatmaker John B. Stetson, who wintered in DeLand and gave generously to the school.

What was Stetson's original 1865 Western hat called?

Stetson's 1865 'Boss of the Plains' was a plain, high-crowned felt hat with a wide flat brim, built to shed sun and rain on the open range.

Hat maker Resistol, a leading cowboy-hat brand, is based in which Texas city?

Resistol has made cowboy hats in Garland, northeast of Dallas, since the 1930s; the name promises a hat that 'resists all' weather.

Cowboy hat antecedents include the sombrero and hats worn by which US military branch?

The cowboy hat drew on the Mexican sombrero and on the broad-brimmed hats of US Army horse soldiers, the cavalry, along with the wide-brimmed hats of eastern farmers.

The two basic styles of cowboy boot are the western (classic) and which other?

The roper, the other basic style, has a short shaft and a low squared heel for calf ropers who must run on foot; the classic western boot has a tall shaft and an angled heel.

Justin Boots and Tony Lama are both divisions of a company owned by which conglomerate?

Justin Brands, parent of Justin Boots, Tony Lama and Nocona, has been a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary since Warren Buffett's firm bought Justin Industries in 2000.

Bootmaker Tony Lama joined the US Cavalry as a cobbler at which Texas post?

Tony Lama served as a cobbler for the US Cavalry at Fort Bliss; after leaving the army in 1911 he stayed in El Paso and opened the boot repair shop that grew into his company.

The Lucchese boot company was founded in 1883 in San Antonio by immigrants from which island?

Salvatore Lucchese and his brothers, immigrants from Sicily, founded the Lucchese Boot Company in San Antonio in 1883, selling first to army officers at Fort Sam Houston.

The word 'lasso' likely comes from the Castilian 'lazo', which derives from which Latin word for a snare?

Lasso comes through Castilian lazo from the Latin laqueus, a noose or snare, the same root as 'lace'; the word reached English in the early 19th century.

The word 'spur' comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'spura', related to a word meaning what?

Spur comes from the Anglo-Saxon spura, related to spornan, to kick, the same root as 'spurn'; the figurative sense of a stimulus dates from about 1390.

The word 'chaparreras' may derive from 'chaparrón', meaning what?

Chaparrón is Spanish for a cloudburst or sudden downpour; the more usual derivation of chaparreras is from chaparro, the scrub oak of the thorny chaparral that chaps were made to fend off.

The Western saddle developed partly from 'la jineta', a riding style Spain took from whom?

Spain took la jineta, a short-stirrup seat, from the Moors (the name recalls the Zenata Berbers) and blended it with the heavy, long-stirrup la brida seat; both fed the Western saddle.

The American Quarter Horse Association has its headquarters in which Texas city?

The American Quarter Horse Association, founded in 1940, is headquartered in Amarillo, Texas, beside its Hall of Fame and Museum; the breed takes its name from its speed over a quarter mile.

How many living American Quarter Horses were registered with the AQHA in 2014?

The AQHA counted almost three million living registered American Quarter Horses in 2014, making it the largest breed registry in the world.

In 1927 a herd was gathered to save the Texas Longhorn at which Oklahoma wildlife refuge?

In 1927 the US Forest Service gathered a small herd of Texas Longhorns at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, Oklahoma, to save the breed from near-extinction; that herd became foundation stock for the breed registry.

Hot-iron livestock branding dates back to which ancient civilisation, around 2700 BCE?

Hot-iron branding goes back to the ancient Egyptians, shown on tomb paintings from about 2700 BCE; in the American West it grew into a complex recorded system of marks.

Which red-bodied, white-faced beef breed became the standard range cattle of the American West?

The Hereford, red with a white face, was imported from England and bred onto Western ranges in the late 1800s, replacing the rangy Longhorn as the beef animal of choice.

In western Canada, a cattle guard is commonly called what?

In western Canada a cattle guard goes by the name Texas gate; New Zealanders say 'cattle stop', Australians 'stock grid', and the British 'cattle grid'.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver was the standard US Army sidearm from 1873 until which year?

The Colt Single Action Army, the 'Peacemaker', served as the standard US Army sidearm from 1873 until 1892, when the double-action Colt M1892 in .38 Long Colt replaced it.

The decorative metal tips on a bolo tie's cords are called what?

A bolo tie's cord ends in decorative metal tips called aiguillettes, from the French for a small needle; its silver slides are a staple of Hopi, Navajo and Zuni silversmithing.

In 1853 Levi Strauss left New York to open a West Coast branch of his brothers' dry-goods business in which city?

San Francisco is where Levi Strauss & Co. began in May 1853, when the German-Jewish immigrant arrived from New York to supply Gold Rush merchants; in 1873 he and Jacob Davis patented riveted denim work pants there.

Wrangler jeans were first made by which maker, which acquired the brand in the 1940s?

Blue Bell hired tailor Bernard 'Rodeo Ben' Lichtenstein to design them.

Wrangler's headquarters is in which North Carolina city?

Wrangler is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the home of its Blue Bell forebear since the early 1900s; its owner Kontoor Brands, spun off from VF in 2019, also owns Lee.

The Marlboro Man cowboy campaign was conceived in 1954 by which advertising executive?

Leo Burnett's Chicago agency created the Marlboro Man in 1954 to sell filtered cigarettes to men, turning a brand once aimed at women into a cowboy icon; the US campaign ran until 1999.

Professional rodeo's rough-stock events include bull riding and which two kinds of bronc riding?

Rodeo's rough-stock events are bull riding, saddle bronc riding and bareback bronc riding, each scored by judges on both rider and animal; the timed events include roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing.

Bull riding has been called 'the most dangerous' how many seconds in sports?

A qualified bull ride lasts eight seconds, hence 'the most dangerous eight seconds in sports'; touching the bull with the free hand disqualifies the ride.

Bucking bulls are usually a cross of what breed with another?

Bucking bulls are usually a Brahman cross, prized for the breed's athleticism and temperament; many trace to the Plummer bloodline bred in Oklahoma.

The bull Bodacious was nicknamed 'the world's most dangerous' and was what unusual colour?

Bodacious was a yellow Charbray-cross bull, born on the Merrick Ranch in Oklahoma's Arbuckle Mountains in 1988, whose head-snapping style earned him the title 'world's most dangerous bull'.

Bodacious is best remembered for seriously injuring which bull-riding icon?

Bodacious shattered Tuff Hedeman's face at the 1995 PBR World Finals, requiring reconstructive surgery; owner Sammy Andrews retired the bull after that year's National Finals Rodeo.

PRCA surveys of sanctioned rodeos put the animal injury rate at roughly what?

A PRCA survey of 60,971 animal performances found 27 injuries, roughly 0.05%, or about one in 2,000; steer wrestling's risks fall mostly on the cowboy.

Bill Pickett's original bulldogging method involved doing what to the cow?

He would bite the lip and fall backward.

How did Bill Pickett die in 1932?

He had retired from Wild West shows.

Bill Pickett was famously associated with which Oklahoma spread near Ponca City?

The 101 Ranch, founded by George W. Miller in 1893 near Ponca City, covered some 110,000 acres and ran the Wild West show in which Pickett starred.

In team roping, what is the rider who throws the first loop called?

The header ropes the steer's horns or head first and turns it so the heeler can rope the hind feet; the clock stops when both ropes are tight.

A barrel racer must manoeuvre around three barrels set in what pattern?

A triangle of three barrels is the course, and the rider runs a cloverleaf around them; barrel racing developed as a rodeo event for women.

Modern rodeo splits the old rodeo clown role into bullfighters and comic entertainers called what?

Bullfighters protect fallen riders from the bull.

The PRCA was born in 1936 when cowboys walked out of a rodeo at which arena?

In 1936 cowboys struck at the Boston Garden rodeo when promoter W.T. Johnson refused to add entry fees to the purse; their Cowboys' Turtle Association evolved into the PRCA.

The PRCA is headquartered in which city?

The PRCA has been based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, since 1979, and the ProRodeo Hall of Fame opened beside its offices there the same year.

The National Finals Rodeo is held each December at which venue?

The NFR has been held at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas since 1985, apart from its 2020 pandemic move to Arlington, Texas.

How many of the PRCA's top money winners in each event qualify for the National Finals Rodeo?

The top 15 money winners in each event qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, which decides world titles over ten rounds; the Cowboy Christmas gift show runs alongside it.

The Professional Bull Riders organisation was founded by 20 riders in which year?

Twenty bull riders, each putting up $1,000, founded the PBR in 1992 with businessman Sam Applebaum; its World Finals moved from Las Vegas to Fort Worth's Dickies Arena in 2022.

The Calgary Stampede bills itself as what?

The Calgary Stampede bills itself as 'The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth'; the ten-day July rodeo and exhibition began in 1912 and regularly tops a million visitors.

The Pendleton Round-Up rodeo, held since 1910, takes place in which state?

The Pendleton Round-Up has been staged in Pendleton, Oregon, since 1910, during the second full week of September, under its 'Let 'er Buck' slogan.

Which Texas city hosts the world's largest livestock exhibition and rodeo?

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, begun in 1932 as the Houston Fat Stock Show to promote Texas livestock, bills itself as the world's largest livestock exhibition and rodeo.

Lucille Mulhall's family ranch and Wild West show were based in which state?

Lucille Mulhall grew up on her father Zack Mulhall's ranch near the town of Mulhall, Oklahoma, and starred in his Wild West show, roping and riding against men from her teens.

Ty Murray won how many PRCA world championships?

Ty Murray won nine PRCA world championships: seven all-around titles (1989-94 and 1998) and two in bull riding (1993 and 1998).

Jim Shoulders, winner of 16 world titles, was known as the what of rodeo?

Jim Shoulders, winner of 16 world titles between 1949 and 1959, was dubbed the 'Babe Ruth of rodeo'; he won his first bull riding event at 14 in 1943.

The Great American Cowboy, a film about rodeo champion Larry Mahan, won which 1974 Oscar?

The Great American Cowboy, Kieth Merrill's 1973 film following Larry Mahan and Phil Lyne through a rodeo season, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 1974 ceremony.

Lane Frost was the only rider ever to score a qualified ride on which 1987 Bucking Bull of the Year?

Red Rock, the 1987 Bucking Bull of the Year, went unridden in 309 pro outings until Lane Frost, the 1987 world champion, rode him in their 1988 Challenge of the Champions series.

Casey Tibbs, twice World All-Around Cowboy Champion, came from which state?

Casey Tibbs was born near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, in 1929 and won the All-Around title in 1951 and 1955 along with six saddle bronc championships.

Chris LeDoux was a rodeo champion and country singer who also worked in which art form?

He recorded 36 albums, many self-released.

Nat Love learned to read as a child with the help of whom, despite laws against Black literacy?

He was born on Robert Love's plantation in Davidson County, Tennessee.

Which fictional Lonesome Dove cowboy was inspired by real trail hand Bose Ikard?

Joshua Deets, the scout in Lonesome Dove, was modelled on Bose Ikard, the Black cowboy who rode the Goodnight-Loving Trail and carried Goodnight's money as his trusted banker.

Deputy US Marshal Bass Reeves is credited with roughly how many arrests?

Bass Reeves, a Deputy US Marshal in Indian Territory for 32 years, is credited with some 3,000 arrests; he had escaped slavery and spoke several Native languages.

Cattle rustler Isom Dart was believed to have been assassinated in 1900 by which hired gunman?

Tom Horn, the range detective hired by Colorado cattlemen, is believed to have shot Isom Dart from ambush at Brown's Park in October 1900, months after killing Dart's partner Matt Rash.

'Stagecoach Mary' Fields carried US mail from Cascade to Saint Peter's Mission in which state?

Mary Fields drove the mail between Cascade and Saint Peter's Mission in Montana from 1895, earning the name Stagecoach Mary as the first Black woman to carry a star route contract.

'Cattle Kate' Ellen Watson was lynched in 1889 after being accused of rustling by which rancher?

Albert Bothwell, a wealthy Sweetwater Valley rancher, led the party that hanged Ellen Watson and Jim Averell in July 1889; her homestead held water rights he wanted.

The Johnson County War of 1889-93 was ended by cavalry sent on the orders of which president?

President Benjamin Harrison ordered the 6th Cavalry from Fort McKinney to lift the siege at the TA Ranch in April 1892, where some 200 settlers had trapped the cattlemen's hired gunmen.

The Lincoln County War, which made Billy the Kid famous, began in which year?

The Lincoln County War began in February 1878 with the murder of rancher John Tunstall, whose Regulators, including Billy the Kid, then killed Sheriff William Brady.

What was Billy the Kid's birth name?

Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty in New York City in 1859 and later used the alias William H. Bonney; he was orphaned as a teenager when his mother died of tuberculosis in Silver City, New Mexico.

Butch Cassidy's real name was what?

Butch Cassidy was born Robert LeRoy Parker in Beaver, Utah, in 1866, taking 'Cassidy' from a mentor, Mike Cassidy; Pinkerton pressure drove him to South America in 1901.

The Sundance Kid fled the US with Butch Cassidy and which woman?

Etta Place sailed to Argentina with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonzo Longabaugh) in 1901; the trio ranched at Cholila before returning to robbery.

Which Earp brother was actually Tombstone's city marshal at the O.K. Corral gunfight?

Virgil Earp held the city marshal's badge in Tombstone and a deputy US marshal's commission; Wyatt was only a temporary assistant marshal that day, sworn in for the confrontation.

Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp's friend, practised which profession?

John Henry 'Doc' Holliday earned a dentistry degree in Philadelphia in 1872 and practised as a dentist before tuberculosis drove him west to gamble.

Bat Masterson was born to a working-class Irish family in which Canadian province?

Bat Masterson was born in Henryville, Quebec, in 1853 to a working-class Irish family that moved to Illinois and Kansas; he ended as a sports columnist in New York.

Wild Bill Hickok's real first names were what?

Wild Bill Hickok was born James Butler Hickok in Illinois in 1837; he served as marshal of Abilene in 1871 and was shot dead at Deadwood in 1876 holding aces and eights.

Calamity Jane's real name was Martha Jane what?

Calamity Jane was born Martha Jane Canary (often spelt Cannary) in Princeton, Missouri, and is buried beside Wild Bill Hickok at Deadwood's Mount Moriah Cemetery.

At 15, Annie Oakley beat which marksman in a shooting contest, later marrying him?

Annie Oakley outshot travelling marksman Frank E. Butler in a match near Cincinnati, married him in 1876, and the pair joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1885.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West began touring Europe in which year?

Buffalo Bill's Wild West first crossed to Europe in 1887, playing London during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, where the Queen herself attended a performance.

Which Wild West showman, born Gordon William Lillie, merged his show with Buffalo Bill's in 1908?

Gordon William Lillie took the name Pawnee Bill after working as an interpreter for the Pawnee; in 1908 he merged his show with Buffalo Bill's, a combination nicknamed the 'Two Bills' show.

Belle Starr was convicted in 1883 of which crime?

Belle Starr and her husband Sam were convicted of horse theft in Judge Isaac Parker's Fort Smith court in 1883 and served nine months in Detroit; she was shot dead in 1889, a murder never solved.

Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch was established in 1884 near which North Dakota town?

Roosevelt established the Elkhorn Ranch in 1884 about 35 miles north of Medora in the Dakota Badlands, hiring Maine woodsmen Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow to run it.

The XIT Ranch's brand was chosen mainly because it was hard to what?

The XIT brand, designed by trail boss Ab Blocker in 1885, was chosen because its five straight strokes were hard for rustlers to alter into another mark.

The XIT Ranch's three million acres were granted by Texas to finance what?

Texas granted the XIT's three million Panhandle acres to a Chicago syndicate in payment for building the new state capitol in Austin, finished in 1888; the ranch ran cattle from 1885 to 1912.

The King Ranch in South Texas was founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and whom?

Richard King, a steamboat captain, founded the King Ranch in 1853 with partner Gideon K. 'Legs' Lewis on Santa Gertrudis Creek; Mifflin Kenedy joined after Lewis was shot in 1855.

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered settlers how many acres of western land?

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres to any settler who lived on and improved the land for five years; fenced ranches later provoked the Fence Cutting Wars of the 1880s.

The devastating winter of 1886-87 is remembered as the end of what era?

The winter of 1886-87 killed hundreds of thousands of cattle on the northern plains and ended the open range era; survivors fenced pastures, cut herds and put up hay.

Which charreada event has a mounted rider flip a running bull by its tail?

Coleadero, or colas, is the charreada event in which a mounted charro grabs a running bull by the tail and rolls it over, one of the nine traditional suertes.

The gaucho is a folk symbol mainly of Argentina and which other country?

The gaucho is a national folk symbol in both Argentina and Uruguay, celebrated in José Hernández's 1872 epic poem Martín Fierro; southern Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul shares the tradition.

The huaso is the traditional horseman of which country?

The huaso is Chile's traditional countryman and horseman, known for the flat-brimmed chupalla hat and striped manta poncho; unlike gauchos, huasos also farm.

Llaneros are herders of the Llanos grasslands in Venezuela and which other country?

The Llanos grasslands straddle Venezuela and Colombia, and their llanero horsemen supplied cavalry to both royalists and patriots, famously riding with Bolívar under José Antonio Páez.

The csikós is a mounted herdsman from which country's puszta grasslands?

The csikós are the mounted horse-herders of Hungary's puszta, the great plain, famed for the 'Puszta Five' trick of standing on two horses while driving three more at Hortobágy.

Australian stockmen who work cattle in the Top End are known as what?

Ringers are the stockmen who muster cattle on the Top End's vast stations, often hired only for the April-to-October dry season when mustering is possible.

Anna Creek, the largest cattle station in Australia, lies in which state?

Anna Creek Station in South Australia covers about 24,000 square kilometres, more than the whole of Israel; founded in 1863, it has run cattle since the 1870s.

Australian drovers who covered very long distances to open new country were called what?

Overlanders drove mobs of cattle and sheep across unsettled country to open new runs, like Patrick Durack's 1880s drive from Queensland to the Kimberley, thousands of kilometres long.

The first Florida 'crackers' arrived in 1763 after Spain traded Florida to whom?

Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, and Scots-Irish and English settlers known as crackers followed; 'cracker' had meant a braggart in Elizabethan English.

Guest ranches, or dude ranches, arose partly after which historian declared the frontier 'closed' in 1893?

Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 'frontier thesis', read at the Chicago World's Fair, declared the frontier closed; the nostalgia it fed helped dude ranches sell the cowboy life to eastern visitors.

Owen Wister, author of The Virginian, is known by what title?

Owen Wister is called the father of Western fiction for The Virginian (1902), the first great cowboy novel, written after his summers on Western cattle ranches.

The Virginian is set during the 1880s in the territory that became which state?

The Virginian is set in 1880s Wyoming Territory, around Medicine Bow, where Wister had travelled; its hero's 'When you call me that, smile!' became the archetypal cowboy line.

What was Zane Grey's best-selling book?

Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), set among Utah Mormons, was Zane Grey's best-selling novel; his ninety-odd books spawned 112 films.

Louis L'Amour preferred to call his Western books what?

Louis L'Amour, who wrote 89 novels including Hondo and the Sackett saga, disliked the 'Western' label and preferred to call his books frontier stories.

Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove won which honour in 1986?

Lonesome Dove won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; the 1989 miniseries starred Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae and Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call.

Charles M. Russell, 'the cowboy artist', produced more than how many paintings?

Charles M. Russell, the Montana 'cowboy artist', produced more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans and landscapes, plus bronze sculptures, having worked as a wrangler for eleven years.

Western artist Frederic Remington was born in 1861 in which state?

Frederic Remington was born in Canton, New York, in 1861 and studied at Yale before heading west; his paintings, illustrations and bronzes fixed the cowboy and cavalry image.

Roy Rogers, 'King of the Cowboys', was born with what name?

Roy Rogers was born Leonard Franklin Slye in Cincinnati in 1911 and co-founded the Sons of the Pioneers before Republic Pictures made him a singing-cowboy star in 1938.

Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, also owned a team in which sport?

Gene Autry founded the Los Angeles Angels baseball team as an expansion franchise in 1961 and owned the club for more than three decades.

John Wayne, nicknamed 'Duke', was born with what name?

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907; a fireman's nickname for his Airedale, Duke, stuck to the boy, and he appeared in 179 film and television productions.

Clint Eastwood's 'Man with No Name' appeared in whose Dollars Trilogy?

Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy made Eastwood an international star in the mid-1960s, after he had first found fame in the TV cattle-drive series Rawhide.

Rawhide aired how many black-and-white episodes on CBS?

Rawhide ran 217 black-and-white episodes on CBS from January 1959 to December 1965, with Eric Fleming as trail boss Gil Favor and Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates.

The Lone Ranger first appeared in 1933 on a radio show from which Detroit station?

The Lone Ranger debuted on Detroit's WXYZ in January 1933, created by station owner George W. Trendle and writer Fran Striker; it ran on radio until 1954.

Bonanza ran for how many seasons on NBC?

Bonanza ran for 14 seasons on NBC, from 1959 to 1973, and its 431 episodes made it the network's longest-running Western.

Who played Marshal Matt Dillon in the radio version of Gunsmoke?

William Conrad voiced Marshal Matt Dillon on CBS radio's Gunsmoke from 1952 to 1961; James Arness took the role when the television version began in 1955.

Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, premiered on which channel in June 2018?

Paramount Network was Yellowstone's home from its June 2018 premiere; the series Taylor Sheridan and John Linson created ended in December 2024 after five seasons and 53 episodes.

In Howard Hawks's Red River (1948), who plays the adopted son feuding with John Wayne's rancher?

Montgomery Clift, in one of his first films, plays Matt Garth, the adopted son who turns against John Wayne's Tom Dunson on a fictionalised first cattle drive up the Chisholm Trail.

The Searchers is based on a 1954 novel by which author?

Alan Le May's 1954 novel The Searchers, loosely inspired by the Cynthia Ann Parker abduction, was filmed by John Ford in 1956 with John Wayne hunting his abducted niece for years.

The 1953 film Shane, with Alan Ladd as the drifter gunfighter, is set in which year?

Shane is set in 1889, in Wyoming's last territorial year, with Alan Ladd as the drifter who defends homesteaders against cattle baron Ryker's hired gun, played by Jack Palance.

High Noon's screenplay was based on a short story titled what?

High Noon's screenplay by Carl Foreman drew on John W. Cunningham's short story 'The Tin Star', published in Collier's in 1947.

In Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood plays an aging outlaw named what?

Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, a reformed killer turned pig farmer, in Unforgiven (1992), which won Best Picture; Gene Hackman won Best Supporting Actor as Little Bill Daggett.

In the 1969 film True Grit, who hires Rooster Cogburn to catch her father's killer?

Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross, played by Kim Darby, hires the one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn to hunt her father's killer Tom Chaney; John Wayne won his only Oscar for the role.

Brokeback Mountain was adapted from a 1997 short story by which author?

Annie Proulx's short story 'Brokeback Mountain' appeared in The New Yorker in 1997; Ang Lee's 2005 film won him the Best Director Oscar, with McMurtry and Diana Ossana adapting it.

City Slickers (1991) marked the acting debut of which future star?

City Slickers (1991) was the screen debut of ten-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Crystal's son; Jack Palance won an Oscar as the trail boss Curly.

Who voices Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story films?

Tom Hanks has voiced Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story films since the first in 1995; his brother Jim Hanks stands in for video games and merchandise.

Hopalong Cassidy got his nickname from what?

In Clarence E. Mulford's original stories Cassidy limped from a bullet wound in the leg, hence 'Hopalong'; William Boyd played a cleaned-up version in sixty-six films from 1935.

Silent Western star Tom Mix appeared in how many films?

Tom Mix appeared in 291 films between 1909 and 1935, all but nine of them silent, and was Hollywood's first Western megastar.

Will Rogers died in a 1935 plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, alongside which aviator?

Will Rogers, the Cherokee cowboy humorist, died on 15 August 1935 when Wiley Post's plane crashed on take-off near Point Barrow, Alaska; Post, the first solo round-the-world flyer, died too.

'Rhinestone Cowboy' was written and first recorded in 1974 by whom, before Glen Campbell's hit?

Larry Weiss wrote 'Rhinestone Cowboy' and recorded it on his 1974 album Black and Blue Suite; Glen Campbell heard it on the radio and his version, released in May 1975, topped both country and pop charts.

The Sons of the Pioneers, the western vocal group, were founded in which year?

The Sons of the Pioneers formed in Los Angeles in 1933 around Leonard Slye, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer, and later recorded 'Cool Water' and 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds'.

Wild West shows flourished as travelling performances in roughly which period?

Wild West shows flourished from about 1870 to 1920, beginning as stage melodramas with Buffalo Bill and growing into open-air spectacles with riders, sharpshooters and mock battles.

The word 'cowpoke', first recorded in 1881, originally referred only to men doing which job in the cattle business?

Prodding cattle onto rail cars with long poles was the original cowpoke's job in 1881; 'cowhand' dates to 1852, and 'cowboy' meant an adult cattle handler by 1849.

In which US region is 'buckaroo' the traditional word for a cowboy?

Buckaroo, an anglicisation of vaquero, is the traditional term in the Great Basin of Nevada, Oregon and Idaho, where the vaquero style survives; 'cowpuncher' is mostly Texan.

Which meatpacker's Chicago plant, opened after the Civil War, created the demand behind the cattle drives?

Philip Danforth Armour's Chicago plant, Armour and Company, opened in 1867 and, with the Union Stock Yards, gave Texas's free-ranging Longhorns a market they had lacked before 1865.

By 1866, a head of cattle could fetch as much as what price in northern markets?

By 1866 a steer worth about $4 in Texas could fetch as much as $40 in northern markets, which made driving herds hundreds of miles to a railhead worthwhile.

How many horses were typically allotted to each cowboy on a trail drive?

A 3,000-head herd needed a crew of at least 10 cowboys working shifts around the clock, plus a cook and a wrangler.

Whose death at the 1929 Pendleton Round-Up led rodeo to drop women's bronc riding?

Bonnie McCarroll was thrown and trampled riding a bronc at the 1929 Pendleton Round-Up and died days later; rodeos soon dropped women's bronc riding, which eastern indoor promoters had already begun excluding.

In 1832, Kamehameha III sent an emissary to which then-Mexican territory to recruit vaqueros?

In 1832 Kamehameha III sent an emissary to Mexican California, and three vaqueros came to Hawaii to teach islanders to rope and ride after the wild cattle overrunning the Big Island.

Which New England sailor founded the great Mauna Kea cattle ranch that bears his name?

John Palmer Parker, a Massachusetts sailor who settled on the Big Island, built the Parker Ranch on Mauna Kea's slopes from land granted by Kamehameha III in 1847; early ranchers caught wild cattle in forest pits.

Which American cowboy helped drive cattle into Alberta in 1882 and became a celebrated rancher there?

John Ware came north with a cattle drive from Idaho to the Bar U ranch in 1882 and became one of Alberta's most respected ranchers; most early Alberta ranchers were English settlers.

What was Canada's first rodeo, established in 1902?

The Raymond Stampede in southern Alberta, first held in 1902, is counted as Canada's first rodeo; the far better known Calgary Stampede did not begin until 1912.

Calgary, home of the Stampede and the centre of Canada's cattle industry, earned which nickname?

Cowtown stuck to Calgary as the centre of the Canadian cattle industry, whose ranchers found the Alberta foothills ideal for raising herds; the Stampede has celebrated that heritage since 1912.

A 2005 US Senate resolution named which date the National Day of the American Cowboy?

The Fourth Saturday of July is the National Day of the American Cowboy, first declared by a Senate resolution in 2005 and re-adopted in later years, with the House periodically voicing support.

After the Civil War, Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight created a western-styled version of which traditional English riding item?

The sidesaddle got a western-styled design from Goodnight after the Civil War; impractical for ranch work, it nonetheless let women ride in public, and Mexican charras perform escaramuza drills riding sidesaddle.