History of the Cowboy

What is a cowboy?

When most of us think about cowboys, we picture John Wayne riding his horse into town to put criminals and wrong-doers in their place. However, cowboy culture is much more complex and interesting than the images we see in Western movies.

Cowboys are primarily animals herders tending to cattle on large ranches in America. The prime era of cowboys was in the 19th century, though cattle tending began in North America when cattle were first introduced to the landscape in the 1400s. The history of cattle raising, tending, and herding goes well beyond the 19th century, with ranch work still prevalent in some areas of the United States today.

Cowboys were tasked to drive cattle across vast landscapes in order to ensure that they were at peak performance for market. This means that cowboys would be on horseback for long periods of time, riding up to 25 miles a day and often carrying with them all they would need to survive when sleeping in the open air.

What is a vaquero?

A vaquero is essentially another word for cowboy, used by Spanish speaking Americans as well as people in Spanish speaking Central and South American nations. It is a term used by Spanish speakers in the US, as well as nations like Mexico, and refers to the cowboy culture of the American continents. Cattle were introduced to North America when Spanish colonists arrived in the 15th century, so the traditions of cowboy culture contain Spanish cultural and historical elements.

The livestock herder lifestyle of vaqueros in the Iberian peninsula inspired much of the cowboy culture of America as it developed, with cowboy and vaquero traditions sharing many similarities.

What is a buckaroo?

Similar to the background of the term vaquero, the term buckaroo may even be derived from vaquero tradition. There is no discernible difference between a buckaroo and a cowboy; these terms can be used interchangeably to describe a North American cattle herder who works on horseback. This is, however, an example of how the widespread cowboy tradition had slight cultural differences in different regions. Though the work was the same for cowboys across North America and especially the United States, in the Great Basin area the word ‘buckaroo’ was commonly used, while Texans used ‘cowpuncher’, and Central and South Americans may more commonly say ‘vaquero’.

An Overview of Western Cowboy History

Cowboy history does not begin in America, but in medieval Spain. Although cowboy culture has become synonymous with the Wild Wild West, and by extension, with the United States, the culture and tradition of cattle herding cowboys comes from the land that colonised the Southern US in the 15th century. The large herds of cattle that were imported to America by colonisers needed to be driven across the vast landscape of Southern and middle America, not least to ensure that they had enough food to forage.

The people employed to drive the cattle were cowboys, who drove cattle across great distances on horseback. With the vaquero tradition beginning in Mexico and the Southwestern United States, the practice of cattle driving became commonplace and grew into a prevalent culture in the region. As it became more ingratiated into American culture in the 1800s, and the further it expanded away from the Spanish-speaking Southwestern states and central America, the more Americanised this tradition become. This evolution is where the history of cowboy culture dissects from the history of vaqueros. 

Cowboy history is most commonly associated with the 19th century, with cowboys seeing a rapid growth in the cattle industry. In this period, ranchers expanded out of the Southwestern states and up into the Rocky Mountains, with Texas cattle being herded to the North. Due to the growing landscape where cattle driving was taking place, cowboys were required to adapt to colder conditions and a greater variety of cultures. 

Though there is still a strong cowboy culture in the United States today, with Western equestrian sports taking notable inspiration from ranching and cattle driving, the cattle herding industry changed rapidly with the advent of mechanisation. As ranching became more mechanical, with innovative machineries and technologies making ranching simpler, cowboys became somewhat obsolete. Innovations which pushed this change include barbed wire, which allowed cattle to be contained within a particular range without manual monitoring; and railroads, which enabled the efficient transportation of cattle without cowboy intervention.

Modern Cowboys

Although the widespread prevalence of the cowboy lifestyle has waned with the development of new cattle ranching practices, there is still a real and vibrant cowboy lifestyle in the United States. In the 21st century, cowboys spend less time on horses and more time transporting livestock on trucks. There are vast ranches, and the cattle who live on them still need to be herded and cared for. Though this has become simpler with new technologies, the people who look after these cattle are the modern cowboys.

Though there are ranches in a range of US states, the culture is particularly strong in Texas, Montana, and New Mexico. Today, you might find modern cowboys in these states taking care of their livestock, doing maintenance tasks to ensure a healthy environment and healthy cattle, and driving livestock between different areas of the ranch.

Cowboys in modern popular culture

You can still see the importance of the history of cowboys and cowboy culture across the world, but most notably in the United States. Western Riding is an extremely popular sport both in America and worldwide, with some disciplines taking direct inspiration from the practices of cowboys in the 1800s.

As well as cowboy sports, the innumerable movies featuring Western heroes like Josey Wales, and country musicians like Johnny Cash taking inspiration from cowboy culture, there is the recent trend for Western clothing like cowboy boots and fringed jackets. All of this lets us know that cowboy culture is still going strong.