Grade 3: Social Studies Academic Standards

3.3.7 Describe cowboy life and cattle drives as typified by experiences along such routes as the Chisholm Trail and the impact of Mexican ranching traditions on the cattle industry and cowboy culture.

“Anything You Can Do”: American Cowgirl Lucille Mulhall, Crossroads
True West: Cowboy Culture and “Pistol Pete” Frank Eaton, Crossroads

Oklahoma History Center Education Resources

History Alive! Living History
Cowboy
Chuck Wagon Driver

Traveling Trunks
Cowboy Trunk
Okietales Cowboy

E-Exhibits
Cows and Cowhands
A Fluid Frontier: Minority and Ethnic Groups and Opportunity in Oklahoma
African Americans in Oklahoma Before 1954, page 1

Teacher Resources
Teacher Development: Cattle Drives

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

David Dary, "Cattle Drives"
Jim Hoy, "Cattle Industry"
Carl N. Tyson, "Texas Fever"
Steven D. Dortch, "Chisholm Trail"
Carl N. Tyson, "Shawnee Trail"
Carl N. Tyson, "Western Trail"
Robert Haywood, "Jones and Plummer Trail"

Research Center Resources

Jimmy M. Skaggs, Ranch and Range in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1983)

Audio/Visual
Pawnee Bill Wild West Show, (1929) (F2008.133.01, Frank Stuart Collection, OHS)
Calgary Stampede rodeo, Canada, and Kiwanis rodeo, Hinton, Oklahoma (F2011.012.055, Haskell Pruett Collection, OHS)
101 Ranch rodeo and Terrapin Derby, September 1931 (2008.058.025, Arthur Ramsey Collection, OHS)
Interview with Wesley Young, North Tulsa Oral History Project

Online Primary Sources

"Cowboy" by J.R. McFerren, 1886, Library of Congress
"Calf Branding," Thomas Edison, Library of Congress
"'Cowboy Waltz' Reed Family Home," Library of Congress
"The Dying Cowboy" Frank Goodwyn, Library of Congress
"The Cowboy’s Lament" E.A. Briggs, Library of Congress
"Cowboy throwing lariat," Library of Congress
"The Round up, 'grub pile'" c. 1900, Library of Congress
"Jicarilla Cowboy," 1905, Library of Congress
"Mexican Cowboys," The Portal to Texas History
"African-American cowboys branding calves," The Portal to Texas History
"African-American cowboys branding calves at John Moore Ranch," The Portal to Texas History

Additional Resources

"Cowboy Photographer: Erwin E. Smith," Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Patterson, Matt. "Chisholm Trail Timeline," The Oklahoman
"The History of the Vaquero," American Cowboy
"Vaqueros: The First Cowboys of the Open Range," National Geographic
"Cowboy Culture," Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
"Vaqueros: Teaching the World to Rope and Ride" Bullock Museum
"The Lesser Known History of African-American Cowboys," Smithsonian
"Hispanic Influence on Ranching in Texas," Texas Historical Commission
"Interview with Guy Logsdon," Voices of Oklahoma

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