The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => History => Topic started by: Sanguine on May 22, 2019, 07:00:45 pm
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(http://appalachianmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/50.jpg)
When one thinks of cattle drives, typically images of cowboys in West Texas pushing a thousand head of Longhorns quickly comes to mind. Movies such as Lonesome Dove have solidified in our minds the Great Midwest as being the only home for such romanticized activity.
Though it is accurate that Texas and the Prairie States played host to some of the largest cattle drives in human history, more than a century ago, each year local communities were participating in similar cattle drives right here in Appalachia — though these activities enjoyed a uniquely Appalachian flair.
It has been well documented that long before barbed wire — and even afterwards — ordinary families in Appalachia would “turn their hogs ah loose’t†in the mountains in springtime and leave them to fend for themselves ...
http://appalachianmagazine.com/2019/05/22/appalachian-cattle-drives-mountain-beef-from-a-century-ago/ (http://appalachianmagazine.com/2019/05/22/appalachian-cattle-drives-mountain-beef-from-a-century-ago/)
@mountaineer , you might enjoy this article.
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Thanks - loved it. My WV ancestors from the 18th and 19th centuries were farmers and probably had a few head of cattle themselves!
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Animals in these parts were ear marked or branded and roamed about freely for a very long time. Only ending during my lifetime.