The Open Range Cattle

As the Indians were dying out, the cowboys were starting to move into their territory.
Cattle and buffalo were competing in the Spanish borderlands. The cowboy was composed of white
men, African-Americans, Mexicans and Indians. The average age of the cowboy was 24yrs old.
The cattle industry was evident even in the early colonial times, but the practices changed
over the years. The poetic times of the open-range cattle industry stemed from its Mexican roots.
The Texas longhorns were known more for their speed and endurance than for thier quality
of steaks. This presented probelms with their value due to their long distance from the larger
beef markets, so they often had to be driven to the markets in Texas. The number of cattle that
roamed the grasslands in Texas had risen to 5 million after the Civil War. In other parts of the
South, however, the cattle crops had been killed off by the war, so this made these Texas herds
in great demand. Some of the herds could be h...