Matagorda Cattle Drive (Texas Country Reporter)

he is the American cowboy that solitary figure on the windswept horizon of our collective imagination kept alive in the flickering memories of old black-and-white shoot-'em-ups the genuine article still endures about a vanishing frontier the poet Baxter black says there are still plenty of cowboys among us you just can't see them from the road they are riding high in the Rockies the deserts the Panhandle Plains and here in Texas they work on sprawling ranches where even the smaller spreads like this one reach right to the edge of Texas itself its boundaries maybe beaches instead of barbed wire but this ranch has run just like any other in the Lone Star State cattle range along a 25 mile stretch of what's technically termed Peninsula but for all intents and purposes this is an island isolated remote and cut off from the rest of the world we bought the land in night the end of 1919 that's when we bought our first tracks on the beach we've families owned it since in his Beach hat and waders Jack Heber isn't your typical Texas cattle man but then again this is no ordinary day on the ranch it's time for the annual spring roundup and between these 350 head of cattle and their new home on the mainland are more than just a couple of long days and some hard miles lying ahead is the gaping mouth of the Colorado River and no way across it but to swim pretty great undaunted by the deep waters and Swift currents out into the Gulf the cattle swim without fear or hesitation for most it's a familiar yearly ritual the river standing only as a temporary barrier to the sweet spring grass waiting on the other side but for their calves this trip is filled with risk and a life-and-death kind of danger though they swim by instinct a few become confused disoriented an exhausted calf could drown in the search for its mother let him go back you basically if you're having a good team there cowboy is to know what to do and if a couple of calves break back they drop elope on them generally they go pretty good comeback it's a long day Jack how long have you been doing this personally well when I got out of college that's 40 49 so I've been doing it since then so I made my first trip though 37 I guess so more than 50 years oh yeah 71 this looks like like something that you'd you'd see on an old western movie it's just a day's work it's just a real thing it's the real thing there's a line in the movie where somebody says are you a real cowboy and he says that depends on what you think a real cowboy is how about you or your real cowboy I know I can call yourself at I know I've made a lot of beach trips but the defends I guess the definition but well I wouldn't last myself as a cowboy of course I've roped and branded Dahl that in my day but I've got sense enough not to try it now these kids they want to they're going to want to get involved and do it they'll always be Cowboys it's morning on the Matagorda and with the dawn comes another long day on the heat nur cattle drive they are carrying on the tradition of Chisholm and goodnight but as these Cowboys hit the trail they have more than wagon wheel ruts and footprints to guide them on their way they use a farm to market highway the only route on or off the island its Wranglers rush-hour the traffic jam texas-style and you get this many cattle in one herd moving down the road and it's kind of a job to drive through the cattle and you got two classes of people is the fishermen that are anxious to get out there and catch the fish that are bad because you can't get through the cow and then there are others that are from Wisconsin or someplace that are so fascinated with it they can hardly contain themselves as long as they enjoy seeing it I guess we're good cheap this is Matagorda a typical tiny Texas town peaceful quiet serene except for one day every year we can pass right through Matagorda we come right down through the middle of town we try to keep them out of people's yards we get in trouble sometimes we leave some fertilizer in the middle road which they probably don't appreciate but it's just the usual thing hey gal I'm sure changes will come we may end up having the truck cattle down here and get more and more people on the highway so now I know we're a nuisance at times but we've been doing it for a lot of years we hope we can keep on a while longer you for now the heaters are still making memories up and down the Texas coast for the young Cowboys getting to ride in an honest-to-goodness cattle drive and for a lot of people who live here you see in Matagorda folks appreciate and understand that they are witnesses to history experiencing a bit of the Old West before it's gone for good it's a tradition that the cattle family's been doing it a long time it's part of my family's history you

Channel: Texas Country Reporter

Views: 101,068

Rating: 4.8500552 out of 5

Keywords: texas country reporter, Texas, bob, phillips, cattle, cow, beef, cattle drive, cowboy, ranch, rancher, Matagorda, Gulf Coast, Bay City, Matagorda Peninsula, Colorado River

Id: IPQi6h1KB0E

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 18 2016