Going North in a Norther

My wife, Linda and I were just in Santa Fe, New Mexico for Christmas (2015) and returned to a blizzard (by our estimations) in El Paso, Texas.  We traveled a little bit in rain mixed with snow and nearly freezing temperatures and after we got home the rain began to turn to snow and overnight we got a bit over 8" of snow.

This scenario got me to thinking about the drovers on the great cattle drives and how they were hell bent to get their "cow hunts" over within a timely fashion so that plenty of time would be had to get their beef to the Northern markets before winter.There were many things that played into the timing of the start of the drive and the cowboys knew of nearly all of the dangers lurking around each bend or over every hill.  The conditions were bad enough during thunderstorms and the inevitability of stampedes.

Too, were the problems of Indians wanting beef because the white man had destroyed their hunting grounds and depleted the buffalo herds.  Another danger was the possibility of a late Norther that could bring  snow and freezing temperatures. Or if they got started to late they ran into the possibility of an early winter storm.  It was these possibilities that got me to thinking what little comforts they actually had on a trail drive.

A good cook was paramount in the necessary comforts for the cowboys because a good meal was one of the very few comforts they had and many times this particular comfort was in short supply. The meals mostly consisting of beans and bread.  The main stay was coffee, and the cowboys sought this "shot of adrenaline" anytime there was a campfire when the chuck wagon stopped at noon or in the evening....and certainly all night for the those on night watch. And it goes without saying the cup of Arbuckles with breakfast was the way to start the day when it would be as much as two hours before daylight. So the comforts were few and far between when it cam to meals and even more so when the drovers tried to get that little bit of sleep at night. (As a side note, notice the water barrel on the side of the wagon in this approximate 1880+ photo. There was a lot of discussion in the ACWA sanctioning as to whether the water barrel was ever on the outside of the wagon.)

I got to thinking about how miserable a cowboy would be in a situation where he had to deal with thunderstorms and rain.  It becomes more difficult to imagine how completely miserable he must be with very little clothing to protect him from the elements and certainly not much of a way to get dry after getting soaked during a rainstorm.  Taking that thought a bit further, how did they actually deal with freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall.  Many of the cowboys only had a canvas sleeping bag with a few sugans to help ward off the cold.  The probability of having a tipi was pretty remote in most Southern camps and the only "roof" over his head at night was the thin layer of canvas bedroll.

Are you imagining this scenario of being freezing cold, wet, sleeping on the ground with nothing to warm you but a couple of blankets?  I began to imagine long years ago how utterly tough these cowboys were in dealing with the elements.

During the time our CALK chuck wagon was competing in cook off's and on some ranches in  places like Capitan, Lincoln, Clovis, Hobbs and Ruidoso, New Mexico and several places in Texas like Dryden our crew was sleeping in the cowboy tipis.  There were times we had to deal with the weather in rain, wind, snow and freezing temperatures as low as 18 F.  We complained like crazy but usually it was for a short while and we would have a change of dry clothes and a place where we could get warm within just a couple of days.  The boys on the trail drive were out there for 2-3 months depending on where their market.  Do you get the picture?

Tough Sum Bitches and I believe it gave them every right to celebrate and let their hair down at the end of a long cattle drive........don't you?