The British Columbia cowboy is a multi-faceted character.
He is said to have combined the Mexican vaquero’s skills, equipment and clothes, the US frontiersman’s grit and resourcefulness, the First Nations’ respect for nature and the British gentry’s sense of law, order and manners. He has his own unique brand of humour.
The North American beef cattle industry arrived in British Columbia in the spring of 1858 when the first commercial herd of cattle was trailed from Oregon for sale to hungry miners who were seeking gold in the Fraser River.
Thousands of head followed, and while most ended up on dinner plates, the drovers and other newcomers were quick to realize their futures might lie in the lush green grass of the central interior. Many who came for gold stayed to raise cattle.
The Rodeo
No other industry has a spin-off to compare with rodeo, which has become a multi-million dollar industry. Williams Lake Stampede has a top ranch hand competition and both the Historic O’Keefe Ranch and Historic Hat Creek Ranch hold “Top Hand” events, where contestants have to be working cowboys representing a ranch. In BC, more indoor arenas are appearing on the scene and ropers and barrel racers train and compete all year. Events like cattle penning are gaining popularity.
Boots and Denim
Hard-wearing denim jeans, cowboy boots, bandanas, vest and cowboy hats found their way in the North American and BC fashion scene from the beginning and they’ve stayed popular. Denim is taking a new meaning in the Cariboo thanks to a lumber company promoting beetle killed lumber by calling it ‘denim pine’ because of the blue streak.
Cowboy Song & Dance
Cowboys sing of special events, special friends (including horses), of loves won and lost (mostly lost). If much of the verse was plaintive, it was because the cowboy life was a lonesome one. Early cowboy songs were versions of old European folk songs and the guitar, banjo and fiddle are still used.
Cowboy dancing was something else. Cowboys’ dance partners sometimes suspected their moves were more related to the way cowboys wrestled steers to the ground. The story is that square dancing and round dancing came about because cowboys who didn’t know the steps could follow a caller.
Artists on the Range
Cowboy art has been popular for well over a century with painting and sculpture reflecting ranch life. Several BC photographers have turned their talents to producing coffee table books with stunning western scenes.
Some cowboy fiction books are classics: (Harry Marriott’s Cariboo Cowboy and Rich Hobson’s books among them). Then there are the ranch-related crafts, where leather workers provide saddles and chaps and saddle bags and reins and stirrups, all made to order.
Guest Ranches
It used to be that dude ranches were places where city folk paid to play at being cowboys. The word dude isn’t heard much these days, but guest ranches are a growing industry. They come in all sizes and descriptions from the historic working ranches like Quilchena Ranch to smaller resorts which offer trail rides.
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