CATTLE RAISERS COMMUNITY


The Old Blue Sign


By J. Mark McLaughlin, past president, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Excerpted from Texas Farm & Ranch, p. 18, vol. 21, 2000


W


HEN TRAVELING DOWN MOST ANY HIGHWAY IN TEXAS and passing rural properties, you will see a blue sign with white lettering proudly


displayed. Some of them look a little faded and old, some are personalized with the ranch name, but all of them proclaim that the resident is a member of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. In fact, there are [more than 16,000] members of


“Cattle Raisers,” as the organization is called, operating ranches in Texas and Oklahoma. Many of these mem- bers represent the fourth, and even fi fth, generation of ranch people who have been members of this historic organization. The Association has been a vital part of the fabric of Texas for over [135] years and to fully ap- preciate its place you have to know some Texas history.


Texas’ livestock legacy Cattle have always been a part of the economic ac-


tivity of Texas. The earliest Spanish explorers brought cattle with them on their small ships, knowing that these animals and their offspring could continue to provide the meat and hides needed for settlement of


22 The Cattleman December 2013


these new colonies. As new outposts were established, these frontiersmen brought cattle with them and fre- quently cattle were the power to pull the carts and wagons to the new territories. Wealth was measured by the extent of the owner’s herds, and Texas had the ideal climate and native vegetation to make these herds prosper and increase. As commerce became more sophisticated in the


latter part of the 19th century, simply owning cattle was not enough. These cattle had to be converted into currency, and that meant fi nding cash markets for cows. Almost every family in Texas had cattle or ac- cess to unclaimed cattle and this was not the market needed. The Industrial Revolution was in high gear in the eastern half of the United States and this was the cash market needed for cattle owners. The chief problem was transporting cattle to the


processors who would pay cash for these animals. In the decades after the War Between the States this meant trailing cattle to the railheads in Kansas, and thus were born the historic and colorful trail drives so famous in the history of the West.


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