![]() Many a long afternoon on the mountain (working cattle through the BLM or Forest Service grazing allotment) is spent in camp, when the day's work is done, and the hours are whittled away by an assortment of pastimes. There is solitude, there is work, there is the land. Working "on the mountain" and "on the wagon," many men like it that way. The buckaroo camps are without plumbing, electricity, or other luxuries of civilization. They go to and from the camps in trucks, hauling horses, equipment, and supplies as they go. Dave Hiller holds bridle of his own design, Little Owyhee Line Campīuckaroos live most of the year in some sort of house on the home ranch, but those who work for the big corporations spend weeks at a time out on the rangelands tending the cattle. Used books are exchanged by the batch at places in Winnemucca and purchased at the Poke and Peek Thrift Shop and the shop in the basement of the historical society museum. Certainly the particular heap of magazines and paperbacks on any line camp dinner table reflects haphazard selection and collection. For many, the favorite topics are adventure, western themes, and the outdoor life, but for others something of Shakespeare is preferred. They read cattlemen's journals, outdoorsmen's magazines, Reader's Digest, and Smithsonian popular paperback novels like Rich Man, Poor Man and Oklahoma Crude and serious nonfiction like buckaroo Herb Pembroke's copy of a history of Russia and pocket editions of the classics. ![]() In Paradise Valley, buckaroos working in the cow camps do a great deal of reading. Not only is the image of the past distorted, but most people assume that there are no more buckaroos pushing cows through the bunchgrass.Įven in earlier days there was ample reading material available to cowboys, from the dime novel and True West through loftier literature. Occasionally movies or books appear presenting a more accurate view of buckaroos, but they make little popular headway. Countless books, articles, radio programs, sound recordings, and Hollywood movies have kept up the flow of simplistic visions of the West. The misinformation and stereotypes that trickled out of the West in travelers' reports and diatribes in the mid-nineteenth century turned into a flood in illustrated weeklies, dime novels, and wild west shows at century's end. "The cowboy" as a subject has been complicated by the national mythmaking process. Bar Interior, Paradise Valley Bar and Store As in any occupation, the laborers' complaints are thoroughly part of the life and the work itself. They would rather spend time making wages on horseback or in a line camp removed from town and regular society. But to a man we found them purposeful individualists who cherish their work even while they complain about its inequities and problems. They don't pack pistols, they don't croon mournful songs at cattle, they aren't uneducated. The image of cowboys as ramblers and rugged individualists leading Teddy Roosevelt's "strenuous life," who shun the fences of civilization, indeed seems to hold up. That serious bit of verse from a widely known poem that Bonnet had used over the years could serve as the buckaroo's creed. You could tell he was thinking hard about the words as he spoke them. We had come to learn about the old buckaroo days and to record the stories, songs, and poems Bonnet knew so well and had become known for. Bonnet sat straight up in the chair, rested his hands on his knees, and stared ahead through the microphones. Tex Bonnet recited that poem for us in October 1979 in his white frame home on a quiet street in Winnemucca. ![]() Student-athletes at Pendleton High School are chosen annually by their varsity coaches to be recipients of these memorial awards.Listen to this page The Cowboy's Creed Portrait of Zane and Reinhold "Tex" Bonnet All memorials either recognize outstanding coaches or athletes that have made a tremendous impact on Pendleton High School. Our Pendleton High School athletic memorials can be found in the Buckaroo Hall of Champions (BHC), outside of Warberg Court. To be eligible for the Walt Johnson “Buckaroo” award, you must have participated in THREE sports for all FOUR years of your high school career! The idea of being an all-around athlete and competing in three sports was something that our friend and fellow coach, Walt Johnson felt was very valuable for all student-athletes. Damon Flagg Memorial Award and Scholarship.
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