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Lecture six was titled Ways and Habits of the West. The lecture started out with Dr. Isern asking us if we could name a famous cowboy. No one could come up with a legitimate name and Dr. Isern explained how much of the tales of cowboys are myths and we talked about shows such as Gunsmoke and Rawhide that fueled the image of tough cowboys. We then talked about how the cattle industry evolved from Spanish origin and expanded across the country. After the Civil War there was a surplus of cattle. In order to connect supply and demand Joseph McCoy decided to drive the cattle north where there were thousands of open acreage to for the range cattle industry to take off. This led to the formation of many cattle towns and then the formation of farming towns. Free air and pools (associations that would organize round ups) and the vast open prairie expanded the cattle kingdom. Further north on the Canadian prairies, ranching became more popular and Dr. Isern mentioned how Canadian framework was different from American methods. Canadian framework tended to be more political, economic, and social, while Americans ways were more cultural and technological. The end of the open range had many explanations but the main ones were overstocking and the environmental repercussions and the encroachment of settler with barbed wire. This led to fenced ranching and other methods such as transient grazing, feedlots, and meat packing. The end of the cattle kingdom signified the end of an important era in our history.

I think it is interesting how the range cattle industry could grow so large and be pretty much shut down because of the increased use of barbed wire fencing. I imagine there were a lot of people that were against fenced ranching. It does make sense though to utilize the land in the ways that are most efficient. It seems Canada methods were more efficient and this is probably what led to the change on the American prairies.