01/13/2025
Great account.
The Texas Quote of the Day is a recollection by S.H. Woods of Alice, Texas of a cattle drive to Wyoming in 1881. Mr. Woods was born in January, 1865 so he was 16 years old when this took place
"When we arrived within eight or ten miles of Dodge City, Kansas, a beautiful city, situated on the north bank of the Arkansas River and about one month's drive from Red River, we could see about fifty different trail herds grazing up and down the valley of the Arkansas River.
That night there was a terrible storm. Talk about thunder and lightning! There is where you could see phosphorescence (fox fire) on our horse's ears and smell sulphur. We saw the storm approaching and every man, including the rustler, was out on duty. About 10 o'clock at night we were greeted with a terribly loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning which killed one of our lead steers just behind me. That started the ball rolling. Between the rumbling, roaring and rattling of hoofs, horns, thunder and lightning, it made an old cow-puncher long for headquarters or to be in his line camp in some dug-out on the banks of some little stream.
After the first break we were unable to control the cattle longer, for just as soon as we could get them quiet, some other herd would run into us and give us a fresh start. Finally so many herds had run together that it was impossible to tell our cattle from others. When lightning flashed we could see thousands of cattle and hundreds of men all over the prairie, so we turned everything loose and waited patiently for daybreak. The next morning all the different outfits got together and we had a general round-up. It took about a week to get everything all straightened out and trim up the herds.
----- Judge S.H. Woods, "Trail Drivers of Texas," 1922. I should add that the rest of Mr. Woods account, especially the Minneapolis part, is well worth reading
