Rodeo 1: The Beginnings
The original cowboys were Spanish vaqueros, tending and herding cattle in the American Southwest and West. (The word "buckaroo" is an Anglicized version of vaquero.)
The cattle grazed on the open range most of the year. In the spring, vaqueros had to round them up, count them, and brand the new calves. The roundup was called a rodeo, from the Spanish rodear, meaning to surround or encircle.
After the hard work was done, it was time to celebrate, and the celebration typically included some exhibitions of horsemanship and roping skills.
In February of 1848, Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico, and Upper California to the United States. That naturally brought English-speaking workers into the region. The cowboys-to-be learned their trade from the vaqueros. They also picked up much of the language and many of the traditions.
Most of the young workers served in the Civil War (1861-65), creating a serious manpower shortage and a surplus of cattle on the Western ranges. When the war ended, Texas alone had an estimated 4 to 5 million unbranded cattle. Meanwhile, the demands of the war had pretty well exhausted the supply of cattle on the East Coast.
Many Texas ranchers saw and seized the opportunity by hiring teams of cowboys to round up and brand the cattle, then drive them to railheads from where they could be taken East by train.
Two Indian traders, Jesse Chisolm and James R. Mead, in 1865 established a wagon road from Wichita, Kansas, to a site near where Oklahoma City is now located. Other traders from the Wichita area soon began using the road. On their return trips, they often drove some cattle that they'd acquired in trade.
That was the beginning of the famous Chisolm Trail, which eventually extended through Oklahoma to the Red River in north Texas. Feeder trails were soon developed from southern Texas and, at the Kansas end, the Chisolm Trail sprouted branches that led to Abilene and Dodge City.
The trip covered more than 1,000 miles and drives had to be limited to about 10 miles a day so the cattle wouldn't lose weight. When they finally reached their destination after a hard-working journey of more than three months, the cowboys got their pay and were ready to have a good time. That meant whiskey, women, and gambling, for the most part. But sometimes, too, cowboys showed off their skills, often as part of a contest to see which outfit could boast the best riders and ropers.
As railroad lines moved west, the drives became shorter and shorter. By 1900, the era of the long cattle drives was over. And, because of the invention of barbed wire, the open range had been pretty much replaced by fenced-in ranches. Some cowboys were still needed as ranch hands, but many others had to find different kinds of work.
Fortunately for a lot of them, the "Wild West Show" became popular just about then. The first and most famous was established by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1883. It actually had its origins the year before, when Cody staged a Fourth of July celebration, the Old Glory Blow-Out, for North Platte, Nebraska, his hometown. It was a major spectacle that included sizeable prizes for competition in riding, roping, bronco busting, and shooting along with Indian attacks, battles, and last-minute rescues. That was the basis for "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" and for the other similar shows that quickly sprang up. In 1885, there were more than 50 such shows on tour.
Six years after Cody's hometown celebration, on July 4, 1888, a "cowboy tournament" was held in Prescott, Arizona. That became an annual event and, in 1913, it became part of a celebration known as Prescott Frontier Days.