Ever since the early days, the trail drives after the Civil War, cowboys have been written and spoken about, their images sketched and painted, their trappings braided and sewn. But no historical narratives adequately explain the chemistry that bonded an incredibly diverse lot of men, in the wilderness, and forced them to rely on each other and their animals during long and trying odysseys. Stsnad
From this experience came an astonishing amalgam of life that would identify Americans forever.
It was a jazz of Irish storytelling, Scottish seafaring and cattle tending, Moorish and Spanish horsemanship, European cavalry traditions, African improvisation, and Native American experience, if also oppression. All the old ingredients can be heard and seen in the cowboying way of life even today. We know that most of this nation's first cowboys, the cowboys of the trail drives of the 1870s and 1880s, hailed from the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Gaelic roots in the British Isles. Their distinctive lingo was largely based on the English language and the songs and poems of the American cowboy are part of that old tradition of balladry.
Today the cowboy spirit lives on. Cowboy styles have become a part of every fashion generation. Denim and leather remain traditional fabrics for outfitting the cowboy. Detail such as pearlized buttons, massive belt buckles, and snakeskin boots still adorn modern cowboys. And of course, where would any cowboy be without his hat? The classic style holds through with traditional rope braiding and trims. Colors range from basic brown leather to flashy exotic animal skins. No matter where it is worn, it still represents the robust vigorous figures who blazed the historical trails.
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One of the most colorful figures of the Old West became the best-known spokesman for the New West. He was born William Frederick Cody in Iowa in 1846. At 22, in Kansas, he was re-christened "Buffalo Bill". He had been a trapper, a bullwhacker, a Colorado "Fifty-Niner", Pony Express rider (1860), wagon master, stagecoach driver, Civil War soldier, and even hotel manager. He earned his nickname for his skill while supplying Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat. He was about to embark on a career as one of the most illustrious prairie scouts of the Indian Wars.
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Davy Crockett, the celebrated hero, warrior and backwoods statesman, was born August 17, 1786 in a small cabin on the banks of the romantic Nolichucky River, near the mouth of Limestone Creek, which today lies about three and a half miles off 11-E Highway near Limestone, Tennessee.
He stands for the Spirit of the American Frontier. As a young man he was a crafty Indian fighter and hunter. When he was forty-nine years old, he died a hero's death at the Alamo, helping Texas win independence from Mexico. For many years he was nationally known as a political representative of the frontier.
His tombstone reads: "Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman, Martyred at The Alamo. 1786 - 1836"
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More than any other man, Daniel Boone was responsible for the exploration and settlement of Kentucky.
If Daniel Boone was destined to become a man of the wild, an explorer of unmapped spaces, his boyhood was the perfect preparation. He came to know the friendly Indians in the forests, and early he was marking the habits of wild things and bringing them down with a crude whittled spear. When he was twelve his father gave him a rifle, and his career as a huntsman began.
Colonel Daniel Boone spent the winter of 1769-70, in a cave, on the waters of Shawanee, in Mercer County. A tree marked with his name, is yet standing near the head of the cave
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http://www.westernfolklife.org/p.home.html
http://www.cowboyhalloffame.org/
http://www.net.westhost.com/trail1.htm
http://www.americanwest.com/
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