Everyone knows about the Western cowboys from movies and television shows of our youth, but how many of you know the hard working people behind the cowboy? While they were out rustling with the cattle and mending the fences of the west, who was there to do the cooking? Also, what kind of ropes might be useful out on a cattle drive. These are two of the most important things to a cowboy besides his horse and saddle.
A cookie was a cook on the range when the cowboys drove cattle between two points in the West. He was one of the most important people in the camp, and had to be quite resourceful at times to provide three hot square meals a day for the cowboys. Rain or shine, dark or light, the cookie had to get the meals done for the men on the trail. The cooks were mostly older men, usually retired cowboys who could cook up a storm on a moment's notice. They had other colorful nicknames like biscuit shooters, bean masters, and stomach cheaters. A cook's work was never done, as so was true of the cattle drive. Since all the directions that a cattle drive took were directed by the North Star, it was the cook's duty to nightly look up and turn his chuck wagon's tongue towards the north to head the drive in the right direction in the morning.
The rope was a critical piece of equipment for any cowboy on a the range. Some cowboys had lariats of Mexican maguey plant. Others had rope made of sisal, which is a derivative of the agave plant. Still others liked the rawhide made from American or Russian hemp. But the most popular ropes were made from the Manila hemp, made from the Philippine banana plant. Standard rope tricks consists of the backhand slip, fore footing, heeling, the pitch, and the hooligan.
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