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Show vidual settlers who each worked their own section. "This agricultural area, known as 'The Big Field,' was usually fenced in by cooperative effort, in order to secure crops against livestock. The area outside of the fenced portion was given to common pasture." Mormon historian Leonard Arrington in his book entitled Great Basin Kingdom: Economic History of the Latter-day Saints 1830-1900, goes on to explain the method, previously mentioned by Bennion, by which the livestock were tended. Stock was bedded down for the night in barns constructed by owners on town lots. Early in the morning "herd boys" would walk down village streets, pick up the stock of each owner, and drive them outside the Big Field for daytime grazing. In the evening, the herd boys would drive the stock back to the village, and down the streets once more. The stock of individual owners would be singled out at each lot and driven in to be milked and/or bedded down for the night, (p. 91-2, 1958) The reality of the early Mormon procedure was that Utah's first cowboys were, in fact, the young herd boys who daily gathered and tended cattle in every Mormon village from Brigham City to St. George. As previously discussed, because the population of both Utah settlers and herds steadily increased throughout the nineteenth century, grazing areas adjacent to settlements became depleted and more remote areas were used. Before too long, herding was no longer just daytime work that could be handled by local boys. "Professional herdsmen" became necessary for the care and maintenance of the cattle and the yearly cycle of moving cattle from high, summer range to lower-altitude, winter grazing became standard for herds of much size. Bennion provides a graphic description of the lifestyle experienced by these first "professional" cowboys. A number of them, including Bennion's father Israel, were young men who worked in southeastern Utah for their cattle-owner fathers. The life of the cowboys in summer was little short of idyllic. Thousands of ducks and geese covered the surface of Fish Lake or waddled about its shores feeding on berries, insects and seeds. Fat deer and grouse were everywhere. Noisy little streams were alive with native trout In late fall they smoked fish and jerked venison for winter use, made a trip to Salina for a year's supplies (consisting principally of flour, clothing, rope and ammunition), and then commenced gathering the cattle off the summer range. (UHQ 34: 320-1) Then began the semi-annual process of branding, weaning and driving the cattle to lower-altitude, winter ranges. Bennion goes on to explain, In summer the cowboys were apt to be camped in high country at considerable distances from each other, but in winter they lived in more substantial quarters not so far apart. During this season the cattle were pretty much left to themselves, and the cowboys devoted the time to moulding bullets, mending riding gear, breaking horses, and just plain having fun. Often they Cowboy Poetry From Utah |