The Southwest
Ranching:
A ranch is a large area of land that has farmland and livestock areas. It originated in Spain as a result of the Reconquista in which the successful Christian Spanish had to develop ways of using the large areas of land taken from the Muslim kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. They developed a form of open-range ranching on horseback that was transposed overseas as Spain began to colonize South and Central America. It worked well due to the similar geographical elements, such as dryness and little grass. An early predecessor to the ranching system was the hacienda, which was a private estate in a market-based economy as a result of Spanish land grants given to officials and conquistadors; it is thought to have started in Mexico in 1529. While the workers varied, they were usually of a much lower class than the landowner, but growing crops and raising livestock were vital elements of their duties. Ranch houses and ranches became increasing popular during the Homestead Act and westward expansion of the United States and thus it reached its peak in North America in the 1880s. Again, with developments of industrialization, such as barbed wire in the 1880s, the open range fell to the wayside as fences were installed to keep animals close enough, and the increase in railroads ended the need for long drives. Industrialization, hard winters, and lack of experience lead to the decline and thus the ranching tradition began to lessen in the early-mid 20th centuries, although it seems unlikely the tradition will every fully vanish. While ranches can have small farms for the family and workers, they are more known for raising livestock than produce and they tend to be larger than farms as the animals need more space.
A ranch is a large area of land that has farmland and livestock areas. It originated in Spain as a result of the Reconquista in which the successful Christian Spanish had to develop ways of using the large areas of land taken from the Muslim kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. They developed a form of open-range ranching on horseback that was transposed overseas as Spain began to colonize South and Central America. It worked well due to the similar geographical elements, such as dryness and little grass. An early predecessor to the ranching system was the hacienda, which was a private estate in a market-based economy as a result of Spanish land grants given to officials and conquistadors; it is thought to have started in Mexico in 1529. While the workers varied, they were usually of a much lower class than the landowner, but growing crops and raising livestock were vital elements of their duties. Ranch houses and ranches became increasing popular during the Homestead Act and westward expansion of the United States and thus it reached its peak in North America in the 1880s. Again, with developments of industrialization, such as barbed wire in the 1880s, the open range fell to the wayside as fences were installed to keep animals close enough, and the increase in railroads ended the need for long drives. Industrialization, hard winters, and lack of experience lead to the decline and thus the ranching tradition began to lessen in the early-mid 20th centuries, although it seems unlikely the tradition will every fully vanish. While ranches can have small farms for the family and workers, they are more known for raising livestock than produce and they tend to be larger than farms as the animals need more space.
Vaqueros in 1890s Wickenburg
A mid-1880s round-up on the VV Ranch.
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Cowboys:
The men who performed the labor were called vaqueros (Spanish for cattle herder), and they formed the basis of what would later be North American cowboys as, again, the tradition spread; they rode horses and covered land as the cattle grazed. Interestingly, despite early appearances of horses on the American continents, they went extinct around 12,000 years ago and were only re-introduced by the Spanish. So, the Spanish influence of the popular image of the American Southwest is so indebted that there would not have even been horses. Another important group of horse-riding culture were the charros, who developed in Mexico after the Mexican War of Independence, when horse-riding was legalized in a non-ranching capacity (as the restrictions imposed by New Spain were moot). They often served as messengers, mercenaries, or liaisons between the Spanish and Natives as the men on the ranches were either Natives or Spanish-Latin themselves. Cowboys, as an American tradition, developed during westward expansion and as English-speakers settled in Texas. After the Civil War, the development of railroads and the meat industry required large herds of cattle to be driven to the nearest railroad stop. Once the trend took off, a herd of 3,000 would be driven by at least 10 cowboys with 3 horses each, a cook, a wagon, and a horse wrangler. Most cattle grazed on the open range and were branded by their ranchers to tell the differences between them. Cowboys were often Mexicans, Native Americans, ex-soldiers from the Civil War, and freed African Americans. Today, on ranches, cowboys are in charge of feeding, branding, and tending to the cattle, horses, and other animals as well as checking on security and performing odd jobs. |