Preserving the Western Trail: A Historian's Perspective an Interview with Michael Grauer

Ever wondered how the foundations of America were built on "beef and bread"? Join us for an eye-opening journey into the heart of cowboy culture with Michael Grauer, the McCaslin Chair of Cowboy Culture and curator at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Michael's expertise shines as he previews the unique and exciting 150th anniversary conference in Dodge City, unraveling the immense impact of the Western Cattle Trail on America's economic landscape. His passion for preserving cowboy culture and art is evident as he shares a sneak peek into the robust program planned for this historic celebration.

In this episode, we also delve into the storied past of the legendary King Ranch through the eyes of historian Bob Kennan. Learn about the significant contributions of Richard King and his descendants, as well as the hardworking unsung heroes of the cattle trails, whose stories we celebrate. We honor the efforts of Margaret and Gary Kreisinger, revered Western Trail historians who have meticulously mapped its routes and will be key figures at the upcoming conference. Plus, get insider details on an exclusive exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. This episode is not just a tribute to the trailblazers of America's cattle industry but an invitation to participate in the sesquicentennial celebration of the Western Trail.

Transcript

Brad Smalley 0:12

As the sun rose over the expansive prairies, the King Ranch came to life with the rhythmic hooves of cattle, the sturdy frames of quarter horses and the whispers of a rich and storied past. Sturdy frames of quarter horses and the whispers of a rich and storied past. At the heart of King Ranch's history lay tapestry woven with resilience and determination, from the early days when King experimented with grazing animals to the emergence of the iconic Running W brand, every chapter of the ranch's story was a testament to its unwavering commitment to excellence. The legacy of King Ranch extended beyond its thriving herds and majestic equines. It encompassed the spirit of community exemplified by the dedicated individuals known as Los Quineños. Their toil and dedication played an integral role in shaping the ranch's identity, echoing through the rolling plains and embodying the human connection that became synonymous with the King Ranch.

Brad Smalley 1:08

Wild West Podcast proudly presents an interview with Michael Grauer and an outline of his 150th Western Cattle Trail Association anniversary presentation on trailing cattle from the King Ranch Ranch. Today we have a special guest, noted worldwide for his contributions to preserving and promoting cowboy culture and art. His unwavering dedication to this cause is truly inspiring. He currently holds the prestigious position of McCaslin Chair of Cowboy Culture, curator of Cowboy Collections and Western Art at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. His career is marked by curating over 150 exhibitions and the authorship of 65 publications, demonstrating his deep knowledge and passion for the subject. His book Making a Hand the Art of HD Bugbee was awarded the.

Brad Smalley 2:12

Western Heritage Award for Best Western Art Book of 2020. Michael, first and foremost, mike and I would like to say how delighted we are to have you on our show. After several months, the Western Cattle Trail Association has been working diligently to assemble a leading list of presenters on selected topics to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Western Cattle Trail Conference, a significant event in our history. Per the schedule notes you will present on trailing cattle from the King Ranch, michael, could you provide an overview of the 150th anniversary conference of the Western Cattle Trail, explaining its significance to America's economic well-being and detailing your role in promoting its history?

Michael Grauer 3:01

Well, first of all, I'm much obliged to be on your program today and offer a little bit of information based on my own research and my own work on cowboy history, ranching history, cattle trails, history, etc. But particularly focused on the Western Trail, the greatest cattle trail of them all, frankly. The Western Trail, the greatest cattle trail of them all, frankly and the conference we've been working on for several months, has been something we've been talking about for the last couple of years because we knew that the 150th anniversary was coming up in 2024. And you only get one shot at honoring a sesquicentennial, so you want to do it right. And you only get one shot at honoring a sesquicentennial, so you want to do it right. And thanks to some good folks there in Dodge, particularly Mary Hendricks, really it's put together a very robust program for the conference, november 1st and 2nd there in Dodge City.

Michael Grauer 3:59

I can't think of a better place to hold this extremely important anniversary celebration than Dodge City. Extremely important anniversary celebration than Dodge City, because it's a critical turning point towards the northern plains, for the Western Trail and the rest of that history that took place beginning in 1874. The conference is really going to be quite a thing to come see and learn a lot about the different aspects of the trail and how it became the greatest cattle trail of them all. And the way I like to say this is that those drovers on the cattle trail were all about establishing ranches on the northern plains as well as bringing cattle out of Texas. And this great country was built on beef and bread. It was not built on broccoli, was built on beef and bread.

Unraveling the Western Cattle Trail Myth

Brad Smalley 4:45

It was not built on broccoli. One element of your presentation will focus on a recording of Bob Kennan, a legendary King Ranch resident historian. Bob's career, marked by unwavering dedication, has been instrumental in unraveling the rich tapestry of the ranch's past. Has been instrumental in unraveling the rich tapestry of the ranch's past. His work traces back to the ranch's beginning in 1853, when Captain Richard King purchased a creek-fed oasis in the Wild Horse Desert of South Texas. Could you delve into the significance of this recorded interview and its influence on the success of the cattle drives on the Western Trail? This will help us understand the historical importance of the interview and its relevance to the success of the cattle drives.

Michael Grauer 5:31

Well, I happened to be present when Mr Canan recorded that interview for a forthcoming documentary on all the cattle trails across the United States, and it was very moving to not only hear his depth and breadth of knowledge about the King Ranch and its history and its place in American history, but especially his passion for telling the story thoroughly and completely. One of the descendants of the original Canenos was also filmed, robert Siqueiros, and it's important to remember who actually did the work on ranches like that and who actually did the work on these cattle trails. Those are the names that are largely forgotten. They didn't make their names into the history books but they're buried in graves from northern Mexico all the way up to western Canada and it's to them that we owe the great debt of building this great country on those beef cattle trails. So Mr Canaan is very much aware of that and wants to ensure that not only Richard King and his descendants in the Clayburgh family get their due but in many ways more importantly, that the Canaanos and the other drovers on these cattle trails are recognized.

Michael Grauer 6:49

And so the portion of the interview from the film I'll be able to introduce that on one level I'm nowhere near the King Ranch historian that Bob Canan is, but it is an opportunity to peek behind the curtain. The King Ranch is extremely well-known worldwide over 800,000 acres and as big as some states in the US. But it's also pretty far away in far south Texas, south of Corpus Christi, down near Kingsville, and it's not a place that you can just drive in. It's not a tourist destination, it's not an amusement park, it's a working cattle ranch and horse ranch and getting a peek behind that curtain through Bob Canaan's eyes and his experiences is a real opportunity that's not to be missed.

Brad Smalley 7:37

As noted earlier, the Western Trail, used from 1874 to 1897, carried an estimated six to eight million cattle along its diverging pathways. Many herds were used to create today's historic ranches on the northern Great Plains. It included nine states, northern Mexico and western Canada and gave rise to famous sites such as Doane's Crossing, dodge City, ogallala and Fort McLeod. The western trail system superseded even the Chisholm Trail, lasting longer, carrying more cattle and covering a greater distance than any other cattle trail, marking a significant shift in the cattle industry in the settlement of the West. We also know you will be making a second presentation on the art of the cattle trail, a collection of Western art. Your insights and expertise are crucial to this presentation. Can you give an overview of this presentation and how it fits in with the stories associated with the Western Cattle Trail and the cowboys who traversed it?

Michael Grauer 8:42

Absolutely. This is something that I've been researching and speaking on and publishing on for a number of years now, as a matter of fact, and one of my publications is on the Texas artist Frank Ray. I wrote a biography on Mr Ray called Rounded Up at Glory, because Mr Ray was the only artist who actually witnessed the cattle drives while they were happening. Most of the depictions that we see were nostalgic, looks back or very much romanticized by artists such as Frederick Remington and Charlie Russell, who were contemporaries of Mr Ray. But initially this entire phenomenon of moving cattle from one part of the US and northern Mexico to another part was completely alien to the rest of the general public in the United States as well as the world, and so initially artists were ostensibly sent out west to witness these for themselves. But what they carried with them was their own ideas of what a drove of cattle looked like, and so the initial illustrations that appear in popular magazines Harper's Weekly, scribner's Century Illustrated Magazine and so on in the late 1860s and early 1870s were preconceived ideas, often containing dairy cattle instead of beef cattle, and certainly not accurate portrayals of how cattle on the trail actually acted, and especially also the men who did the work, and most of them were men who did the work pushing those animals up the trail to feed America and eventually build ranches on the northern plains in western Canada. So they brought their own. They were drawing for publication what they thought they knew rather than what they actually saw.

Michael Grauer 10:29

So when Mr Ray starts doing his work beginning in 1876, he starts to lend credibility and realism to a phenomenon that was completely unknown. Nobody knew what a cowboy was and they weren't even called cowboys initially, they were called drovers. Nobody knew what a Texas longhorn looked like. So you have these fantastical beasts appearing in these magazines and then, of course, to ensure a readership in these magazines, the illustration became more and more exaggerated, particularly involving gunplay and particularly stampedes.

Michael Grauer 11:08

And for those in Dodge City, one of the most amazing illustrations that I use in my talk shows cattle stampeding madly down the middle of the street there in Dodge City, possibly Front Street, we're not really sure, because it's certainly not indicated. And I always show that and say and this, of course, is how you always move cattle through downtown Dodge City you pulled out your black snake bull whips and you whipped them into a frenzy to drive them down the street to make sure they got into the stockpens and safely on the cattle cars to go wherever they were going. Just a bunch of nonsense, but still it sold books and it sold popular magazines and it certainly sold newspapers and sadly that popular culture gives rise to what most people think they know about the American West, and cattle drives and cowboys and drovers made its way into film and of course they use the same old templates that we're still seeing today.

Brad Smalley 12:08

Like I say, I love that bit of art that you're talking about. I've used that you're you're talking about, I've used that. I've used that picture myself and it's been the head of my social media for for years. I get the the mythic proportions of it, but, god, that's a good illustration.

Michael Grauer 12:27

It is. It's fantastic. And please don't get me wrong, I don't fault the artists at all and they had. They had an assignment and they were trying to make good art and they did. Many of them were really great at it. But unfortunately, people they use the exaggerated to sell books and newspapers and films and so on. It's just the way it is, but we have to try to place them in context of what actually happened on the trail and that's what I do in that particular presentation on the trail, and that's what I do in that particular presentation.

Brad Smalley 12:57

All the more reason to hold this conference to kind of allude to the mythic understanding of it and really get people to sort of understand the reality of the way these guys actually work too, so that was a great illustration. Thank you for that. Before we close, are there any additional statements you'd like to make about the upcoming Western Cattle Trail Association 150 conference and why an individual would want to attend?

Celebrating the Western Cattle Trail

Michael Grauer 13:33

other speakers I'd like to bring up in a couple of other presentations, and one of those is James Leiker from Johnson County Community College up in Kansas City, who wrote a book, or co-authored a book, about the Cheyenne exodus and what that discusses is the northern Cheyenne breakout of near Fort Reno in what's now western Oklahoma. These Cheyenne people were placed there against their will and broke out and headed north back to their homeland and they followed the Western Trail. And so the Western Trail has a multilayered history and I encourage people to come here. Dr Leiker will present on that and likewise Mick Miller will present on the last cattle drive on the Western Trail, which occurred in 1897. And it actually was a herd that came from the XIT Ranch, the famous XIT Ranch in Texas Panhandle, up near Channing and Dalhart, texas, three million acres at its largest at one time. But they had finishing ranges and feeder ranges up on the northern plains in Wyoming and Montana, and that very last cattle drive was headed by XIT drovers and that will really conclude what we're having to say. But most importantly we need to recognize the two greatest historians of the Western Trail.

Michael Grauer 14:50

Margaret and Gary Kreisinger will be present at the conference of the Western Trail. Margaret and Gary Kreisinger will be present at the conference. They've written, exhaustively researched, two volumes on the Western Trail and they'll be available for a Q&A at that time and we can sling questions to them, which will never stump them, because they've plowed through virtually every archive across those nine states to find all the documentation they can, as well as drawing maps of every part of the route, and drew those maps through every county, every part of every state, to mark that trail accurately. So we know where it was, including the feeder routes and the splinter routes, because there were splinter routes that broke off, that went to Cheyenne and Laramie, wyoming, up to Deadwood, south Dakota, fort Beaufort, fort Benton, various places along the trail, and the Kreisingers found all the evidence that they could find to document that trail accurately and I encourage people to come hear what they have to say about this incredible series of events.

Brad Smalley 15:57

Well, michael, I'm glad that you worded the way you did at the beginning of this interview that we only get one chance to do this right for the 150th anniversary. The same can be said is you've only got one chance to attend the 150th anniversary of the Western Cattle Trail Association, so we hope everybody takes advantage of that. This is going to be a fantastic event a lot of great speakers. We are super excited that we get to be a part of this and really help spear that on. Thank you so much for all of your insights. I look forward to chatting with you further.

Michael Grauer 16:33

May I add one thing? Absolutely, I have curated the only exhibition I'm aware of on the Sesquicentennial of the Western Trail, which will open here at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City on September 13th of this year and it will run through November 17th, and we've used artifacts from our collection to help you travel the trail, at least through the exhibition gallery. And one set of those artifacts is a costume that James Arness wore in one of the Gunsmoke movies and it's the representative artifact for Dodge City and I'd encourage everyone to come see that exhibition Because, as I said before, I don't know of any other museum or any other entity that's celebrating the Sesquicentennial of the Western Trail with an exhibition.

Brad Smalley 17:25

That is fantastic. Thanks for that information. We'll get a chance to get down there and visit that.

Michael Grauer 17:31

Thank you guys.

Brad Smalley 17:39

That's it for now. Join us on November 1st and 2nd 2024 when Michael Grauer will provide historical accounts of trailing cattle from the King Ranch and the art of the cattle trail. You can hear Brad's presentation at the Western Cattle Trail Association 150th anniversary conference in Dodge City. The event will feature speakers and activities to commemorate this historic milestone. The agenda includes discussions on the history of cattle trails and exploring the history of the Northern Cheyenne Indians. Those interested in attending the conference should note that the registration fee is $75 a person and registration can be completed via the organization's website or through the mail. Active participation from attendees is essential in ensuring the success of this significant event. Additionally, those who register early will be guaranteed a place and receive a special commemorative gift. To learn more about how to register to attend this conference, go to westerncattletrailassociationcom slash conferenceinfohtml and reserve a seat at this November 1st and 2nd two-day event. Thank, you.