5 Secrets That Helped Cowboys Survive in the Wild

Cowboys lived in the open much of the time, and that often meant fighting against hunger, thirst, sickness, and the elements.

It sometimes took them months to drive cattle across the country, and they developed some clever tricks to survive. 

Here are 5 surprisingly clever secrets that helped cowboys make it in the wild!

1. Trail Food

The first rule that helped cowboys survive these long travels was choosing simplicity.

They needed to bring enough food to last them a long time, but they also couldn’t randomly choose what to bring. Organic food spoils quickly, and they were constantly exposed to the elements.

Both rain and heat could make their ingredients spoil faster.

So, they survived by sticking to the basics: beans, biscuits, dried meat, and sourdough starter. 

Cooks guarded the starter like gold, feeding the jarred yeast for months and sometimes years. It meant they could have fresh bread and biscuits no matter how far they strayed.

Either way, they needed to make sure the food was quick and easy to prepare.

2. The Coffee Trick

The strong and bitter coffee that cowboys drank is often romanticized, but it was actually another trick that helped them survive.

Staying awake wasn’t their main problem on the road; 水分補給 was.

However, they couldn’t safely drink the water from any stream or river they encountered without a filter.

That would mean risking getting sick in the middle of nowhere, which meant they were as good as dead.

So, they had to boil the water, but that wasn’t a very nice drink either. Instead, they threw in the coffee to make the drink bearable.

Sometimes, it barely worked, but it was a reliable trick. 

3. The Cook Was the Key

On a cattle drive, the wagon cook was more important than many people realize.

With no doctor for hundreds of miles, cooks became medics of the trail. They knew how to patch up and disinfect wounds.

Their methods were quite unsophisticated, but they saved lives.

This dual job that the cooks performed made them highly respected members of the group. 

This only shows how the cowboys had to improvise and trust each other. 

They needed to be extremely self-reliant because there was literally no way to get help.

They could only hope that one among them knew enough medicine to get them all safely home. 

4. Singing at Night

The cattle themselves could be dangerous on these drives. In the dead of night, these gentle creatures could easily get spooked and create a stampede!

To make sure they remain calm, cowboys would frequently sing to cattle on the night watch.

Whoever was assigned with staying awake and keep watch would slowly move around the animals, singing to them quietly.

These low tunes and familiar voices allowed the animals to stay calm. 

The danger and night sounds never went away, but the singing helped distract the cattle enough to give everyone a peaceful night. 

5. Paying for Pass

Cattle drives also moved through inhabited areas, and often, that meant the cowboys had to cross the lands of the Native nations.

To spare time and lives, they typically paid tolls.

This dangerous calling required cowboys to be prepared for compromise. The political situation of the time was very complicated, and they had to be well-informed.

There wasn’t an established system. The toll and the relationship they could form depended on the specific tribe.

Some crossings were peaceful. They traded and found mutually beneficial solutions.

However, some were tense. Broken treaties and mistrust ran so deep in some cases that even trying to negotiate was extremely dangerous. 

This part of cowboy history rarely makes it into the movies, but it’s truly fascinating.