Volume 46 No 3 2005

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The Spirit of San Antonio
Host city of the 2005 USCAP Meeting

At this meeting, Greg Fuller, Neuro-pathologist at the MD Anderson Hospital, Houston, Texas, presented David Page the Maude Abbott lecturer, and Phillip Sharp the Timely Topics lecturer, with a replica of the silver star of the legendary Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers were the law enforcement officers engaged to maintain law and order in the ‘Wild West.’ Greg gave a similar Silver Star to David Walker the Maude Abbott lecturer in 2004. (He assures me that it is too expensive to make any further presentations.)

San Antonio can be regarded as being at the centre of two traditions that have etched themselves deeply into the American psyche – the frontier and the cowboy.

Above: David Page left, and David Walker presented with replicas of the silver star of the Texas Rangers by Greg Fuller.

The vast central plains of North America were inhabited by buffaloes (bison), and a myriad of other animals. The bison of modern times are considerably smaller than their ancestors whose bones are preserved in the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. The indigenous Indians lived off the land, and the animals that roamed across it. The Spanish colonizers of South America, and Mexico in particular moved northwards into the South West of North America – California, New Mexico and Texas. Later on, mainly in the late 1700’s and early1800’s the European settlers from the Eastern sea board began to move West across the Appalachian mountains. The settlers were preceded by explorers, hunters and adventurers who found the routes across the mountains and then led the settlers who travelled in ‘wagon trains’ – 20 or so families travelling together for protection against Indians and wild animals such as coyotes. They were called ‘Frontiersmen.’ Perhaps the two most famous of these were Daniel Boone (1734-1820) and Davy Crockett (1786-1836)

A replica of Davy Crockett in the La Villita Museum, 1976.

The Alamo and one of its walls that leads to the Crockett Hotel.

The San Antonio canals, the heart of the tourist attractions.

Davy Crockett is particularly remembered in San Antonio because he was one of the ‘heroes’ who died in the defence of the Alamo fort against a vastly superior force of Spanish and Mexican troops. The Spanish army was ultimately defeated and this led to the handing over of the former ‘Spanish Territories’ to the newly formed, Post Civil War, United States of America.

The remains of the Alamo that became famous in 1836 are the central tourist attraction of San Antonio. The other Tourist attractions are built around this National Monument. The small San Antonio River has been dammed as a flood control measure, and converted into a system of canals that have been given a special charm by being lined by paved walking paths. Cafes, hotels and a shopping mall front onto the canals, and tourist boats travel them. All of this gives a special ambience to the city centre which is further enhanced by the lighting effects in the evenings.

On May 10th 1869 the East West Railway from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans met at Promontory Point in Utah. Branch lines North and South from this East West arterial line then began to be built. Joseph McCoy a 29 year old cattle dealer who had been working in Chicago saw a business opportunity. A southern railway line - the Kansas Pacific Railroad - went as far south as the town of Abilene in 1867, about 1000 miles north of San Antonio. San Antonio was at the heart of the State of Texas in which there were an estimated 3 million Long Horn cattle roaming the plains. These cattle were a hybrid of the original cattle, and cattle introduced by the Spaniards. McCoy dreamed about how he could get these cattle to Abilene from where he could transport them to the rapidly developing market on the East Coast.

The first thing he did in an attempt to accomplish this dream was to buy the town of Abilene for $5 an acre. Then he established trails from the Gulf of Mexico to Abilene so that the cattle could be herded along these trails. Feeder trails led to San Antonio and then there was one trail from there to Abilene. This became known as the Chisholm trail.
McCoy offered to buy cattle delivered in Abilene for $40 a head. The cattle were purchased in Texas for about $4 a head. They were then driven by cowboys to Abilene in herds of about 2-3000 head. They travelled at about 1 mile a day and the journey from San Antonio took about 3 months (if there were no complications.) Between 1867 and 1871 about 1.5 million head of cattle were processed through Abilene.

The cowboys were rough, lawless men who carried all their possessions on their horse, or on a packhorse that they led from the saddle of the horse they rode. The drive was usually supported by supplies and food carried on a ‘chuck wagon.’ The long horn cattle were easily frightened and then they would stampede, causing chaos and loss of animals. The cowboys would sing in the evenings to help calm the cattle and to console themselves in their loneliness. This led to the Hollywood ‘singing cowboys’ such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

In a small town, Palacios, in the South of Texas, I had a short stop off from a Grey Line bus in October 1976. There was an old style Sheriff’s Office with its flag outside. It closely resembled the offices of the Texas Rangers in the mid 1800’s. As I took the photo, the sheriff emerged with his six shooter in its holster and ‘mounted’ his modern day horse.

Joseph McCoy’s business deal led to the ‘age of the cowboy’ which lasted a short 10 years from the 1860’s, by which time the railways had been built into the heart of the cattle country. Many of the cowboys made a considerable amount of money droving cattle from Texas to Abilene. Some of those who did not spend it all in the saloons and gaming houses in McCoy’s Abilene, became Ranchers, settling on large tracts of land and breeding cattle that would be taken to market on railway cattle trucks. President Lyndon Johnston’s grandfather was one of these early Ranchers. The LBJ Ranch is one of the day tours offered to visitors to San Antonio.
Other successful cowboys settled in San Antonio and established businesses and service industries. They left their mark in the form of large houses that were built along Williams St. near the down town area of the present San Antonio. In the mid 1900’s many of these large houses on large allotments of land fell into disrepair as the down town areas of many of the American cities became unpopular places in which to live. The syndrome of the ‘dying down town’ affected San Antonio as well. In the 1970’s these houses, still on large parcels of land were renovated, and in 2005 they are flourishing again as heritage listed and protected properties.

One of the old houses in William St. being renovated in 1976.

The same house in 2005, heritage listed and for sale.

As the countryside was peopled with settlers, small towns sprang up, each with a single street, a saloon, a bank, a Sheriff’s office and a Newspaper office. These became the ‘cow towns’ of the ‘wild west.’ They were ruled by the six shooter and the man who could ‘draw’ it most quickly from its holster on his hip, and shoot the straightest. Into these towns rode the law enforcement men – the Texas Rangers.
The cowboy tradition was immortalised by film makers in Hollywood who made endless ‘cowboy pictures.’ The first Hollywood cowboys appeared in the silent movies. William S. Hart who rode a pinto pony, the breed of horse used by the plains Indians, was one of the most famous of these.

President Johnston built an office - home on his Ranch and managed much of the business of the White House from there. President Reagan was a cowboy actor and the two Presidents Bush have Ranches in Texas.

The pinto pony of the first Hollywood cowboy, William S. Hart.

LBJ Ranch ‘White faced cattle’ (Herefords) that feature in some of the cowboy songs

LBJ Ranch family grave yard. The biggest head stone is President Lyndon Johnson.

LBJ Ranch. An old farm house with kitchen and a stable with a saddle store (the latter is shown).

The Buckhorn Saloon, 2005.

The Buckhorn Saloon, Texas long horn

In San Antonio itself the Institution that most embodies the Cowboy tradition is the Buckhorn Saloon which is just near the Alamo. About 85% of the items in the Saloon are from the original Saloon that opened in 1881. The original items include the bar itself, the décor on the walls, the chandeliers and the antique coin games. A bar attendant in traditional dress and a door man dressed as a cowboy greet visitors. It also has a magnificent collection of animals and animal heads, skilfully preserved by taxidermists whose work dates from the earliest days of the Saloon. This Museum collection is called the Hall of Horns. It has, among many other exhibits, a beautiful long horn steer, a bison, a coyote, a rattle snake, a number of bears and some examples of congenital abnormalities, such as different varieties of conjoined twin calves. It has William S. Hart’s pinto pony, some very ornate saddles and many other memorabilia of the cowboys.

Other displays at the Buckhorn Saloon include Coyotes, Rattlesnakes and conjoined calves

Insignia of the Boone and Crockett Club.

It was an interesting co-incidence that the Convention Centre was hosting, not only the meeting of the USCAP, but also the 28th Annual Convention and Wildlife Expo of the Foundation for the North American Wild Sheep, (FNAWS) Meeting with them was the Boone and Crockett Club. Both of these groups foster both the Frontiersman and the Cowboy traditions of America. The approximately 3,000 delegates to these meetings swelled the numbers of people walking the streets of San Antonio in ‘cowboy’ or American western style clothes. These societies foster controlled and regulated hunting of game animals, and they are heavily involved in all aspects of Conservation. Another American President, Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, was a keen big game hunter and an early member of the Boone and Crockett Club. He hunted in Africa in the early 1900’s. Some of his hunting trophies, including some elephant heads, were donated to the Harvard Club in New York.
Robin Cooke
Acknowledgements: Information for this article was gleaned from many sources, both written and oral. I would mention in particular, ‘America’ by Alistair Cook (1973) British Broadcasting Corporation.
Permission to use the photographs I took in the Museum was granted by Bevin Henges of the Buckhorn Musuem.

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