Fencing the Open Range - Part One
March 11, 2025
Before fences, line riders were to keep cattle from wandering. Some ranchers spent thousands to build board fences to preserve their breeding stock. Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire. Ranchers were skeptical, but eventually accepted it as a less expensive way to control cattle. Trouble was coming.
The Northern Plains
March 4, 2025
Cattlemen discovered that the Northern Plains could support raising cattle. Most winters cattle could survive on the nutritious grass. Immigrants on the Oregon Trail traded two worn out cattle for one healthy animal. Cattlemen wintered the worn-out animals in Montana, then returned with healthy cattle to trade with the immigrants.
Cowboy Clothes
February 25, 2025
Joe Justin started repairing boots, then making his own. His wife Annie developed a self-measuring kit for mail orders. John Stetson mass produced hats, “Boss of the Plains” was a favorite. Immigrant Levi Strauss imported clothing, he joined with Jacob Davis to use copper rivets to reinforce their pants, which became the “501.” Early trousers were made of wool or canvas. Frontier dress with fringes was a part of western design.
Texas Ranchers
February 18, 2025
Millions of acres of prairie was ideal for raising cattle. Richard King and John Chisum had the largest ranches with thousands of cattle and horses. New homesteaders lived in one room shacks or dugouts until they could build a proper ranch house. A ranch with a good water supply was essential. The rancher had to design his own brand and how to mark his cattle with a "wattle" and an earmark.
Cattle Drive Towns
February 11, 2025
The best known Kansas cattle towns were Abilene, Dodge City and Wichita. The towns boomed with the arrival of the herds. Cowboys were ready for new clothes, a hot bath and entertainment. Some lost their wages and headed back to Texas, most were wiser, moral and honest.
Antarctic Explorers
February 4, 2025
Sir Earnest Shackelton made three expeditions to the Antarctic. His ship, the Endurance, was crushed in the sea ice on his third voyage. He sailed to Elephant Island and left 22 of his men to shelter until he could make his way back. He sailed 800 miles in a small whaling boat to South
Georgia Island to a whaling station. After four and a half months he was able to rescue his men left on Elephant Island.
My Trip to Antarctica
January 28, 2025
We had an amazing trip to Chile and on to King George Island in the Antarctic. Whales, seals, penguins and beautiful icebergs. We were in the area where Sir Earnest Shackleton's crew spent time on Elephant Island before being rescued.
Nelson Story
January 21, 2025
After striking it rich in Virginia City, Montana, Story
financed the first cattle drive from Texas to Montana in 1866. He faced all the
dangers and struggles of moving cattle through Indian territory to bring Texas
longhorns and Texas cowboys to the miners in Montana.
Obsidian Cliff
January 14, 2025
Obsidian Cliff in Yellowstone Park is the largest deposit
of obsidian in North America. Native Americans have used this for thousands of
years for scrapers, spears and arrow heads. More than two dozen tribes would
peacefully gather obsidian in this war free zone. Pieces of this obsidian has
been found as far as the East coast and central America. Knapping, the process
of making arrow heads is still used today.
Photographers and Painters
January 7, 2025
Easterners wanted stories and pictures of the old west, but cameras were heavy and difficult to use. William Jackson took thousands of pictures, most important, of Yellowstone. Soloman Butcher took pictures of the pioneers. Albert Bierstadt’s paintings were in museums. Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell became the most famous painters and sculptors of the west, because of detail and they focused on the people and their way of life.