Just Talkin' Texas

“A white man will ride the mustang until he is played out; a Mexican will take him and ride him another day until he thinks he is played out; then a Comanche will mount him and ride him to where he is going.” This axiom of the Old West gave the Comanche due credit for horsemanship.

Just Talkin' Texas

Who wouldn't like to own a weekend home in the country? Well, the pioneer settlers of Fredericksburg, Texas, wanted just the opposite. They built their weekend homes in town.

Just Talkin' Texas

Barbed wire was on the brink of revolutionizing the beef cattle industry in the 1870s, but nobody knew it. Hardly a rancher or cowboy in Texas believed that a few bristling strands of twisted wire could convince a maverick longhorn steer to change his mind about his choice of destination.

Just Talkin' Texas

Lottie Deno left no tracks coming or going at Fort Griffin, Texas. She showed up one day in 1876 on the stage from Jacksboro and disappeared three years later by the same means. Where she came from, where she went, and who she was would always remain a mystery.

Just Talkin' Texas

With the long-legged strut of a Shanghai rooster, he stepped onto the pier at the Gulf Coast port of Indianola, Texas. His net worth as a gangling 19-year-old stowaway amounted to 75 cents that summer in 1853. Able Head “Shanghai” Pierce had nothing going for him.

Just Talkin' Texas

In the spring of 1891, the cowboys of the Rocking Chair Ranch, in the Texas Panhandle, were getting in some early roundup work. About sundown, S.H. Vaughn, manager of the ranch, ordered some of the boys to kill a steer for meat.

Just Talkin' Texas

This gusty springtime weather we’ve endured lately brings to my mind some old-time tales of “wind wagons” that I have turned up in my research of the Wild West.

Just Talkin' Texas

Bill James should have known he was in for a strange afternoon when he spotted the pet bear on the front gallery of the Jersey Lilly Saloon. Any bear with a name like Sarsaparilla was unusual enough, but this particular specimen was drinking a bottle of beer.

Just Talkin' Texas

A Tribute to Doc Blakely.            Many readers of Livestock Weekly over the past half-century have enjoyed the humorous writings of Doc Blakely. My parents, Doc and Pat Blakely, sold their ranch and Charolais herd a few years ago and moved to Fredericksburg, where I live.