190 Fun Facts About Cowboy

The word cowboy derives from vaquero, the Spanish term built on 'vaca'. What does vaca mean?

The suffix -ero marks a trade, and the whole thing traces back to the Latin vaccarius, a cowherd.

The vaquero traditions behind the American cowboy trace back to Spanish settlers from which region?

Elements like the short-stirrup jineta riding style and the hackamore go back to Moorish rule in Spain.

In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate crossed the Rio Grande into New Mexico with roughly how many head of cattle?

From that start, vaqueros drove cattle from New Mexico and later Texas all the way to Mexico City.

In the British Isles between 1820 and 1850, the word 'cowboy' meant what?

In 1880s Arizona the same word was an insult implying horse thief or outlaw, after the smuggling gang dubbed 'The Cowboys'.

Historically, cowboys could be hired as soon as they had the skills, often at what age?

The wrangler in charge of the spare horses was often the youngest or lowest-status hand on a drive.

Black cowboys made up roughly what share of workers on the trail drives out of Texas?

Estimates put the number of Black range workers between 6,000 and 9,000 from the 1860s to 1880s, and about one in three cowboys may have been a Mexican vaquero.

The first large Texas cattle drive of 1866 aimed for a railhead in which Missouri town?

Kansas farmers feared Longhorns would spread cattle fever and trample crops, so the herds sold cheap.

Which Kansas town got a cattle-shipping facility in 1867 and loaded over 36,000 head that year?

The route there from Texas became the Chisholm Trail; by 1877 Dodge City was shipping 500,000 head a year.

How many miles a day could a herd move and still keep a healthy weight?

Cattle could cover 25 miles a day, but they lost so much weight they were hard to sell; the Chisholm Trail was 1,000 miles long.

On average, how many head of cattle made up a single herd on a drive?

Getting a herd from home ranch to railhead could take as long as two months.

On a cattle drive, the herd of spare horses was known as what?

The wrangler looked after it, while the cook drove the chuck wagon and doubled as the crew's doctor.

Besides feeding the crew, what other responsibility made the trail cook a respected figure?

The wrangler, by contrast, was usually the youngest hand or one of the lowest status.

Which Texas rancher, the 'father of the Panhandle', invented the chuckwagon in 1866?

He bolted a 'chuck box' with drawers and a fold-down lid onto a surplus Studebaker army wagon for his first drive to New Mexico.

The chuckwagon was built from a Civil War surplus wagon made by which manufacturer?

The same firm later became famous for automobiles.

Which pair drove their first herd in 1866 from Fort Belknap, Texas to Fort Sumner on the trail bearing their names?

The Goodnight-Loving Trail eventually stretched 2,000 miles into Colorado and Wyoming.

The JA Ranch, founded in 1876 as the first ranch in the Texas Panhandle, sits in which landmark?

The same year he began preserving a herd of plains bison, some of whose descendants seeded Yellowstone's herd in 1902.

Roughly how many cattle were driven from Texas to Kansas railheads during the cattle-drive era?

Four trail systems carried them: the Shawnee, Goodnight, Eastern/Chisholm and Western trails, between 1846 and 1886.

Why did Missouri farmers block Longhorn herds on the Shawnee Trail as early as 1853?

Texas cattle were immune to the disease but the ticks they dropped infected local herds.

Which 1880s innovation let ranchers confine cattle and helped end the open range?

Overgrazing plus the brutal winter of 1886-87, when hundreds of thousands of cattle died, finished the era; by the 1890s the long drives were over.

Texas Longhorns descend from cattle brought to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors starting when?

The first cattle landed on Hispaniola in 1493; the breed was rescued from near-extinction in 1927 by US Forest Service enthusiasts.

John B. Stetson founded his hat company in 1865 in which city?

The New Jersey native had gone west for his health; his 'Boss of the Plains' became the first true western hat, and the firm grew to make 3.3 million hats a year.

According to writer Lucius Beebe, which hat, not the cowboy hat, was 'the hat that won the West'?

Settlers wore top hats, bowlers, cavalry hats and sailor hats; the front-creased Carlsbad later became the classic cowboy style.

Chaps were created in Mexico to replace which piece of riding equipment?

The name chaparreras may come from chaparrón, a cloudburst, or chaparros, brush; goatskin versions with the hair on are chivarras.

The American word 'lariat' is an anglicisation of which Mexican Spanish term?

In Spain the same word means a string of mules or horses tied together, and in Colombia it can mean a belt.

Which two early bootmakers, in Olathe, Kansas and Spanish Fort, Texas, made the cowboy boot famous?

The high heel kept the foot from slipping through the stirrup; Justin later moved to Nocona and Fort Worth.

Florida's 'cracker cowboys' historically herded cattle with which tools instead of lassos?

Without a lariat to anchor they often used McClellan saddles; their beef fed the Confederacy and was later shipped to Cuba.

The Hawaiian cowboy is called a paniolo, believed to be a Hawaiianised pronunciation of which word?

Hawaiian has no 's' sound; Kamehameha III brought three vaqueros from Mexican California in 1832 to teach islanders to work cattle.

Which British captain gave cattle and sheep to Kamehameha I in 1793, starting Hawaii's cattle story?

Kamehameha banned killing the cattle for ten years on pain of death, and by the 1830s wild herds were a problem.

Which Canadian province dominates ranching, with cattle outnumbering people?

American cowboy John Ware brought the first cattle into the province in 1876; Canada's first rodeo, the Raymond Stampede, dates from 1902.

In Australia, what are ranches called?

Cowboys there are stockmen and ringers, while jackaroos and jillaroos are trainee overseers.

The mounted cattle herders of the French Camargue are called what?

Italy's Maremma has the butteri, Chile the huaso, and Venezuela and Colombia the llanero.

Which nickname did Black cowboy Nat Love claim to have won at a Dakota Territory rodeo in 1876?

Deadwood newspapers covering that Fourth of July mention no rodeo, so the story is doubted; co-workers had earlier called him Red River Dick.

Where was Nat Love born into slavery in 1854?

He learned to read despite laws against Black literacy, worked cattle out of Dodge City, and later became a Pullman porter.

In which year did Bill Pickett become the first African American in the National Rodeo Hall of Fame?

The Taylor, Texas cowboy of African American and Cherokee ancestry invented the technique of wrestling steers by the horns.

Buffalo Bill Cody founded his touring Wild West show in which year?

The company toured Europe from 1887; the show is where 'cowgirls' first came into their own as trick riders and sharpshooters.

Buffalo Bill was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1872. What happened to it in 1917?

Historians also doubt his claim to have ridden for the Pony Express, though he did work for its parent firm as a boy.

Rodeo cowgirl Fannie Sperry Steele rode rough stock like the men while wearing what?

She competed at the Calgary Stampede and Cheyenne Frontier Days; women's rodeo events were cut back in the 1920s.

Cheyenne Frontier Days, billed as the world's largest outdoor rodeo, has been held every year since when?

It runs for ten days around the last full week of July and draws close to 200,000 people.

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held every year in which Nevada town?

The second-largest gathering is the Lone Star in Alpine, Texas, and Baxter Black is probably the best-known modern cowboy poet.

Which singing cowboy promoted a 'cowboy code' encouraging honourable behaviour, respect and patriotism?

Historians contrast that wholesome image with the rowdy 'subculture of violence' of real Texas drovers.

Which cowboys caught, broke and drove wild horses to market from the 18th century onward?

The mustang-runners worked the Great Plains, California's San Joaquin Valley and later the Great Basin.

What did the chuckwagon's inventor call his bison-cattle crossbreed?

Before ranching he had joined the Texas Rangers in 1857 and guided the raid that recaptured Cynthia Ann Parker.

The Chisholm Trail's pathway was first established in 1861 by which Lenape guide?

Jesse Chisholm's wagon road followed around 1864.

Jesse Chisholm, namesake of the great cattle trail, was a fur trader of which Native heritage?

He died in 1868, before the peak of the drives that used his route.

The Great Western Cattle Trail ran roughly parallel to the Chisholm Trail on which side of it?

John T. Lytle blazed it from Medina County, Texas in 1874.

The Goodnight-Loving Trail crossed the Llano Estacado to reach the Pecos River where?

It ran on to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, then Denver and Wyoming.

Oliver Loving died in 1867 after being wounded by which people on a cattle drive?

Loving County, Texas, the least-populous US county, is named for him.

Loving County, Texas, named for Oliver Loving, holds what US distinction?

He was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky in 1812.

In which state was cattleman Charles Goodnight born in 1836?

He moved to Texas in 1846 and became a cowboy in 1856.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, home of the Hall of Great Westerners, is where?

It holds more than 28,000 Western artworks and artifacts and Charles Goodnight was inducted in 1955.

Joseph 'Cowboy' McCoy, who promoted shipping Longhorns east, first made money selling what?

A stockcar-load sold in Kentucky in 1861 taught him rail logistics.

Cattle towns sprang up at the junctions of livestock trails and what?

They were where herds were sold to meatpackers and feeders.

Which Kansas cattle town was named after a fort honouring a Civil War general?

The first settlement there was Fort Mann in 1847.

Chicago's Union Stock Yards, opened in 1865, earned the city what nickname?

They operated for 106 years on the South Side.

Fort Worth's Union Stockyards opened for business in which year?

The arrival of railroads in 1876 had made the area a livestock centre.

Cowboy dish 'sonofabitch stew' was made mainly from what?

Alan Davidson's recipe lists brain, heart, liver, sweetbreads and 'marrow gut'.

John B. Stetson left which home state for the West for health reasons before founding his hat firm?

He founded the company in Philadelphia in 1865.

Stetson's Philadelphia factory eventually turned out more than how many hats a year?

It sprawled over nine acres.

What was Stetson's original 1865 Western hat called?

It had a high crown for insulation and a wide stiff brim for shelter.

Resistol, which sells about a million cowboy hats a year, is based in which Texas city?

Its range runs from $15 straw hats to $3,000 beaver-and-ermine models.

Cowboy hat antecedents include the sombrero and hats worn by which US military branch?

Eastern farmers' wide-brimmed hats also influenced it.

The two basic styles of cowboy boot are the western (classic) and which other?

The classic has a tall shaft and an angled heel over an inch high.

Justin Boots and Tony Lama are both divisions of a company owned by which conglomerate?

H.J. Justin began repairing boots in Spanish Fort, Texas.

Bootmaker Tony Lama joined the US Cavalry as a cobbler at which Texas post?

After his service in 1911 he stayed in El Paso and opened a repair shop.

The Lucchese boot company was founded in 1883 in San Antonio by immigrants from which island?

Its first customers were army officers at Fort Sam Houston.

The word 'lasso' likely comes from the Castilian 'lazo', which derives from which Latin word for a snare?

It entered English in the early 19th century.

The word 'spur' comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'spura', related to a word meaning what?

Its figurative sense of 'stimulus' dates from about 1390.

The word 'chaparreras' may derive from 'chaparrón', meaning what?

Chaps were originally meant to protect riders from rain and mud.

The Western saddle developed partly from 'la jineta', a riding style Spain took from whom?

It combined with the heavier 'la brida' style.

The American Quarter Horse is named for its sprinting speed over races up to what length?

Some have been clocked at 44 mph.

How many living American Quarter Horses were registered with the AQHA in 2014?

It is the largest breed registry in the world.

Texas Longhorn horns can span more than what distance tip to tip?

About 40% of the cattle are some shade of red.

Hot-iron livestock branding dates back to which ancient civilisation, around 2700 BCE?

In the American West it grew into a complex marking system still used today.

The Hereford beef breed originated in which English county?

By 2023, 62 countries reported over seven million head.

In western Canada, a cattle guard is commonly called what?

New Zealanders say 'cattle stop'; Australians say 'stock grid'.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver was the standard US Army sidearm from 1873 until which year?

It is also known as the Peacemaker.

The decorative metal tips on a bolo tie's cords are called what?

Silver bolo slides are part of Hopi, Navajo and Zuni silversmithing.

Levi Strauss moved from New York to which city in 1853 to open a dry-goods branch?

The company is now based at Levi's Plaza there.

Wrangler jeans were first made by which maker, which acquired the brand in the 1940s?

Blue Bell hired tailor Bernard 'Rodeo Ben' Lichtenstein to design them.

Wrangler's headquarters is in which North Carolina city?

Owner Kontoor Brands also owns Lee.

The Marlboro Man cowboy campaign was conceived in 1954 by which advertising executive?

It ran in the US until 1999.

Professional rodeo's rough-stock events include bull riding and which two kinds of bronc riding?

Timed events include roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing.

Bull riding has been called 'the most dangerous' how many seconds in sports?

Touching the bull with the free hand means no score.

Bucking bulls are usually a cross of what breed with another?

Many trace their lineage to Charlie Plummer's Oklahoma bulls.

The bull Bodacious was nicknamed 'the world's most dangerous' and was what unusual colour?

He was born on the Merrick Ranch in Oklahoma's Arbuckle Mountains in 1988.

Bodacious is best remembered for seriously injuring which bull-riding icon?

Owner Sammy Andrews retired the bull soon after.

Steer wrestling carries a high injury risk to the cowboy; PRCA surveys put animal injuries below what rate?

A survey of 60,971 animal performances found 27 injuries.

Bill Pickett's original bulldogging method involved doing what to the cow?

He would bite the lip and fall backward.

How did Bill Pickett die in 1932?

He had retired from Wild West shows.

Bill Pickett was famously associated with which Oklahoma spread near Ponca City?

The 110,000-acre ranch near Ponca City was founded in 1893.

In team roping, what is the rider who ropes the steer's front end called?

The heeler ropes the hind feet.

A barrel racer must manoeuvre around three barrels set in what pattern?

It developed as an event for women.

Modern rodeo splits the old rodeo clown role into bullfighters and comic entertainers called what?

Bullfighters protect fallen riders from the bull.

The PRCA was born in 1936 when cowboys walked out of a rodeo at which arena?

Promoter W.T. Johnson had refused to add entry fees to the purse.

The PRCA is headquartered in which city?

The ProRodeo Hall of Fame is there too.

The National Finals Rodeo is held each December at which venue?

It sits on the UNLV campus in Paradise, Nevada.

How many of the PRCA's top money winners in each event qualify for the National Finals Rodeo?

A gift show called Cowboy Christmas runs alongside it.

The Professional Bull Riders organisation was founded on April 12 of which year?

Businessman Sam Applebaum and 20 riders started it; it is based in Fort Worth.

The Calgary Stampede bills itself as what?

The ten-day July event draws over a million visitors.

The Pendleton Round-Up rodeo, held since 1910, takes place in which state?

It runs during the second full week of September.

Which Texas city hosts the world's largest livestock exhibition and rodeo?

It began as a way to promote Texas livestock production.

Cowgirl Lucille Mulhall, born in St. Louis, was known by which title?

She was one of the first women to compete with men in roping and riding.

Ty Murray won how many PRCA world championships?

Seven were all-around titles and two in bull riding.

Jim Shoulders, winner of 16 world titles, was known as the what of rodeo?

He won his first bull riding competition in 1943.

The Great American Cowboy, a film about rodeo champion Larry Mahan, won which 1974 Oscar?

'The Great American Cowboy' told his story.

Lane Frost was the only rider ever to score a qualified ride on which 1987 Bucking Bull of the Year?

Frost, the 1987 world champion, died in the arena in 1989.

Casey Tibbs, twice World All-Around Cowboy Champion, came from which state?

He won the title in 1951 and 1955.

Chris LeDoux was a rodeo champion and country singer who also worked in which art form?

He recorded 36 albums, many self-released.

Nat Love learned to read as a child with the help of whom, despite laws against Black literacy?

He was born on Robert Love's plantation in Davidson County, Tennessee.

Which fictional Lonesome Dove cowboy was inspired by real trail hand Bose Ikard?

Ikard rode the Goodnight-Loving Trail and acted as Goodnight's de facto banker.

Deputy US Marshal Bass Reeves is credited with roughly how many arrests?

He escaped slavery and spoke several Native American languages.

Cattle rustler Isom Dart was believed to have been assassinated in 1900 by which hired gunman?

His partner Mat Rash was also gunned down.

'Stagecoach Mary' Fields carried US mail from Cascade to Saint Peter's Mission in which state?

She was the first Black woman employed as a star route postwoman.

'Cattle Kate' Ellen Watson was lynched in 1889 after being accused of rustling by which rancher?

Her homestead held water rights the county's richest rancher wanted.

The Johnson County War of 1889-93 was ended by cavalry sent on the orders of which president?

A posse of 200 settlers had besieged the ranchers' hired gunmen.

The Lincoln County War, which made Billy the Kid famous, began in which year?

Sheriff William Brady and rancher John Chisum were among the participants.

What was Billy the Kid's birth name?

He was orphaned at 15 and linked to nine murders.

Butch Cassidy's real name was what?

The Pinkertons' pursuit forced him to flee the United States.

The Sundance Kid fled the US with Butch Cassidy and which woman?

His real name was Harry Alonzo Longabaugh.

The 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral pitted lawmen against a group of rustlers known as what?

It lasted less than a minute in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

Which Earp brother was actually Tombstone's city marshal at the O.K. Corral gunfight?

Wyatt was his assistant marshal.

Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp's friend, practised which profession?

Modern researchers doubt he killed more than a couple of men.

Bat Masterson was born to a working-class Irish family in which Canadian province?

He later became a journalist in New York.

Wild Bill Hickok's real first names were what?

He was a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler and showman.

Calamity Jane's real name was Martha Jane what?

She appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West late in life.

At 15, Annie Oakley beat which marksman in a shooting contest, later marrying him?

The pair joined Buffalo Bill in 1885.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West began touring Europe in which year?

Cody had founded the show in 1883.

Showman 'Pawnee Bill', briefly Buffalo Bill's partner, was born Gordon Lillie in which state?

He was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in 2010.

Belle Starr was convicted in 1883 of which crime?

She was fatally shot in 1889 in a still-unsolved case.

Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch was established in 1884 near which North Dakota town?

He hired two Maine woodsmen, Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow, to run it.

The XIT Ranch's brand was chosen mainly because it was hard to what?

The 3-million-acre ranch financed the Texas state capitol.

The XIT Ranch's three million acres were granted by Texas to finance what?

It ran 200 miles along the New Mexico border from 1885 to 1912.

The King Ranch, the largest in the US, was founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and whom?

It covers about 825,000 acres between Corpus Christi and Brownsville.

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered settlers how many acres of western land?

Fenced-off ranches led settlers to cut wire in the Fence Cutting Wars.

The devastating winter of 1886-87 is remembered as the end of what era?

It forced the entire reorganisation of ranching.

Charrería, the national sport of Mexico, was historically known as what?

It grew from hacienda ranch-work competitions of the 16th century.

The gaucho is a folk symbol mainly of Argentina and which other country?

Gauchos were celebrated by South American writers from the late 19th century.

The huaso is the traditional horseman of which country?

Unlike gauchos, huasos also farm.

Llaneros are herders of the Llanos grasslands in Venezuela and which other country?

They supplied cavalry to both sides in the wars of independence.

The csikós is a mounted herdsman from which country's puszta grasslands?

They are tied to Hortobágy National Park and the Nonius horse breed.

Australian stockmen who work cattle in the Top End are known as what?

They are often employed only for the April-October dry season.

What is the female equivalent of an Australian jackaroo?

The word originated in 19th-century Queensland.

Australian drovers who covered very long distances to open new country were called what?

Moving thousands of wild station cattle is a serious undertaking.

The first Florida 'crackers' arrived in 1763 after Spain traded Florida to whom?

'Cracker' once meant a braggart in Elizabethan English.

Guest ranches, or dude ranches, arose partly after which historian declared the frontier 'closed' in 1893?

Nostalgia for the vanished frontier made it safe to indulge.

Owen Wister, author of The Virginian, is known by what title?

Mount Wister in Wyoming is named for him.

The Virginian is set during the 1880s in the territory that became which state?

It was adapted from stories in Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post.

What was Zane Grey's best-selling book?

His works were adapted into 112 films.

Louis L'Amour preferred to call his Western books what?

His Sackett series and Hondo are among his best known.

Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove won which honour in 1986?

The 1989 miniseries starred Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall.

Films adapted from Larry McMurtry's works earned how many Oscar wins?

They collected 34 nominations in total.

Charles M. Russell, 'the cowboy artist', produced more than how many paintings?

He also sculpted in bronze and championed Native American causes.

Western artist Frederic Remington was born in 1861 in which state?

He painted cowboys, Native Americans and the US Cavalry.

Roy Rogers, 'King of the Cowboys', was born with what name?

He co-founded the Sons of the Pioneers before his acting career.

Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, also owned a team in which sport?

He owned the Angels for decades.

John Wayne, nicknamed 'Duke', was born with what name?

He appeared in 179 film and television productions.

Clint Eastwood's 'Man with No Name' appeared in whose Dollars Trilogy?

He had first found fame in the TV cattle-drive series Rawhide.

Rawhide aired how many black-and-white episodes on CBS?

It ran from January 1959 to December 1965.

The Lone Ranger first appeared in 1933 on a radio show from which Detroit station?

Test episodes had aired earlier on WEBR in Buffalo.

Bonanza ran for how many seasons on NBC?

Its 431 episodes made it NBC's longest-running Western.

Who played Marshal Matt Dillon in the radio version of Gunsmoke?

James Arness took the role on television.

Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner, premiered on which channel in June 2018?

It ended in December 2024 after five seasons and 53 episodes.

In Howard Hawks's Red River (1948), who plays the adopted son feuding with John Wayne's rancher?

The film fictionalises the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas.

The Searchers is based on a 1954 novel by which author?

John Wayne spends years hunting for his abducted niece.

The 1953 film Shane is set in which year, during the Johnson County War era?

Alan Ladd plays the mysterious drifter who turns out to be a gunfighter.

High Noon's screenplay was based on a short story titled what?

John W. Cunningham's story ran in Collier's in 1947.

In Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood plays an aging outlaw named what?

The 1992 film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris.

In the 1969 film True Grit, who hires Rooster Cogburn to catch her father's killer?

Kim Darby played the girl; Glen Campbell was Texas Ranger La Boeuf.

Brokeback Mountain was adapted from a 1997 short story by which author?

Ang Lee directed; McMurtry co-wrote the screenplay.

City Slickers (1991) marked the acting debut of which future star?

Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby head to a dude ranch.

Who voices Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story films?

His brother Jim Hanks voices Woody in video games and merchandise.

Hopalong Cassidy got his nickname from what?

William Boyd played him in sixty-six films.

Silent Western star Tom Mix appeared in how many films?

All but nine were silent films.

Will Rogers, 'Oklahoma's Favorite Son', was born a citizen of which tribe?

He wrote more than 4,000 syndicated newspaper columns.

'Rhinestone Cowboy' was written and first recorded in 1974 by whom, before Glen Campbell's hit?

Campbell's version was released on May 26, 1975.

The Sons of the Pioneers have performed since which year?

They are one of the longest-surviving country vocal groups.

Wild West shows flourished as travelling performances in roughly which period?

They began as stage productions and became open-air spectacles.

When 'cowpoke' first appeared in 1881, it referred to men doing which specific job?

'Cowhand' dates to 1852; 'cowboy' itself had taken its modern sense of an adult cattle handler by 1849.

In which US region is the term 'buckaroo' still the usual word for a cowboy?

'Cowpuncher' is mostly a Texas word, while 'cowboy' dominates the Great Plains and Rockies.

Which meatpacker's Chicago plant, opened after the Civil War, created the demand behind the cattle drives?

Before 1865 Texas had vast free-ranging herds but little market for beef; the packing boom changed that almost overnight.

By 1866, a head of cattle could fetch as much as what price in northern markets?

That price made it worth herding Texas cattle hundreds of miles to the nearest railhead, which in 1866 was Sedalia, Missouri.

How many horses were typically allotted to each cowboy on a trail drive?

A 3,000-head herd needed a crew of at least 10 cowboys working shifts around the clock, plus a cook and a wrangler.

Whose death at the 1929 Pendleton Round-Up led rodeo to drop women's bronc riding?

Eastern promoters staging indoor rodeos after 1925 had already begun excluding women from the men's events.

In 1832, Kamehameha III sent an emissary to which then-Mexican territory to recruit vaqueros?

He invited three vaqueros to Hawaii to teach islanders how to handle the wild cattle overrunning the countryside.

Which New England sailor leased royal land near Mauna Kea in 1837 and built a ranch?

The first horses had only reached Hawaii in 1803; early ranchers caught wild cattle by driving them into forest pits.

Which American cowboy brought the first cattle into Alberta in 1876?

Most Alberta ranchers were English settlers, but open-range dryland ranching in the American style dominated the south by the 1880s.

What was Canada's first rodeo, established in 1902?

The far better known Calgary Stampede did not begin until 1912 and is now the world's richest rodeo.

Which nickname did Calgary earn as the centre of Canada's cattle industry?

Cattle still outnumber people in Alberta, where ranchers found the foothills ideal for raising herds.

The US Senate has declared which date the National Day of the American Cowboy since 2005?

The resolution has been renewed every year since, with the House periodically issuing statements of support.

Which piece of women's riding gear did Charles Goodnight redesign in a western style after the Civil War?

Impractical for work, it still let women ride in public; Mexican charras ride sidesaddle in charreada exhibitions to this day.