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Branding Across Time
When thinking of the American West the image of a laconic individual with the requisite boots, chaps, and hat comes to mind. We envision him on long cattle drives, riding along miles and miles of fences or on a great roundup. In our minds we can see the cowboy chasing down a hapless calf, roping and wrestling it to the ground by a campfire with branding irons in the flames. Another cowboy grabs it and burns the owners mark on its hip. It’s all part of the mystique of the cowboy, some of it romanticized in art and the movies; all of it based on reality and much of it…
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The Wandering Man
This love affair lasted a lifetime; whether consuming, creating, or collecting, the written word permeated his life. He bragged that between 1928 and 1942 he read more than 150 books a year. He built a personal library of over 10,000 books, journals, and periodicals; a varied collection that surprised and delighted visitors. He was one of the world’s most prolific authors writing poetry, over 400 short stories, screenplays and more than 100 books. Sitting in his sick bed, Louis L’Amour was editing his final book the day he died in 1988. Some discounted his writing as just simple westerns, but his stories perfectly expressed the romance and authenticities of Western…
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Straight to the Horse’s Mouth
At first glance, especially to those unfamiliar with all that is involved in horse care, the new exhibit at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame might look like medieval tools of torture. No need to worry, these old malicious looking implements are just a set of equine dentistry tools from 1904, donated to the hall by the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. It is believed that equine dentistry practices began about 2000 years ago on the steppes of northeastern Asia and Mongolia by ancient nomads. The horse has the distinction of being the most significant domesticated animal of the past 5000 years, playing a critical role in the development, growth…
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Who was Benjamin Henry?
Who was Benjamin Henry? Historians and those knowledgeable of guns would be familiar with his name, but for most his significance is unknown. Conversely, the name Winchester sparks immediate recognition. Yet in one of history’s many ironies, it was Henry who was directly responsible for the Winchester rifle and Oliver Winchester’s place in American history. As a young man Henry worked as a gunsmith apprentice and rose to foreman of a small arms company in Vermont. He worked with Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson who went on to form the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. Oliver Winchester, a clothing manufacturer, was one of their main investors. Winchester was able to take…
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War Bonnet!
The old steamer trunk has been in the family attic for generations. The treasure it holds comes out from time to time to be admired and pondered. Who wore it? What moments in history did the wearer see and experience? What stories are hidden in this honorary headdress? Over one hundred years ago the US government opened up a strip of land to homesteaders between the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. There were over 100,000 applicants but only 2500 families won a claim. One of these families was that of Henry and Margaret Lutgen, who established their farm along the path the local Native Americans…
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“Come and Get It”
There she stands welcoming all who enter the ranching exhibit at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame. She’s all done up like she would have been back in her heyday when she was perhaps the most important entity in a cowboy’s life on the trail. The horse was a cowboy’s first love, but to start and end the day what could be more important than the chuck wagon! As the National Day of the Cowboy approaches here at the NDCHF and across the US, perhaps no other image reflects the life of a cowboy more than the chuck wagon – a cowboy’s home away from home. This is where…
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National Day of the Cowboy: Preserving Pioneer Heritage and Cowboy Culture
“We celebrate the Cowboy as a symbol of the grand history of the American West. The Cowboy’s love of the land and love of the country are examples for all Americans” President George W. Bush The thirteenth annual National Day of the Cowboy is July 22, 2017. The American cowboy has firmly taken his place in American history. He is an almost mythological character of the American west; often a lone rider embracing a simple life, loving and living off the land with hard work and nobility. The cowboy culture is firmly embedded in the character of many western states; the cowboy hat and boots are more than just a…
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The Legacy of the Horse in the Lives of the Great Plains People
The Great Plains spread in a boundless swath of land across ten states running from Texas through North Dakota and into Canada. The Northern Plains, including North Dakota, have vast open expanses dominated by short and tall grasses. The climate is one of extremes; cold harsh winters and hot humid summers. The grasses change from a vibrant green in the spring to a sea of gold as the summer ends when land and animals prepare for the winter. Sometimes as you look across the plains, those wide open spaces of flat and rolling grasslands can seem to go on forever. The wind and sunlight will create waves in the ocean…
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The Western Trail
American cattle drives loom large in our imagination, but in reality they only lasted a short time in our history. The Chisolm Trail is iconic Americana and often what people think of when they envision an old west cattle drive. However, the lesser known Western Trail which succeeded the Chisolm was longer, carried more cattle and was traveled for more years.
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History of the Western Saddle
A good saddle would often cost a month or two of wages. This was money well spent; a well-made saddle would serve its owner well for thirty years or more. A good saddle and a considerate rider could travel 70 miles a day and still have a healthy horse. A thoughtless rider in a poor saddle could make a horse sore in an hour.
