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  • Bobby Ormston
    Reply

    The comments about Water Moccasins were spot-on! Most snakes will try to avoid humans & won't strike unless cornered. Moccasins will come after you from a distance, & will not give up until killed. I've had more than 1 try & get into the boat. It's amazing how they can crawl right up the side. Made 1 of my better snap-shots on one coming over the gunnels. My fishing buddy was impressed. It was coming into his end of the boat!The statements about cowboys were true, too. There are other professions that breed good, tuff men. Working cattle 365 days a year, no matter what the weather, will build character . . . or so I'm told.

  • Scott Haley
    Reply

    Very good. It looks as though "Lonesome Dove" stayed pretty true to the real story…
    and as a former working cowboy (about a hundred yrs ago:), I can vouch for the accuracy of the description of that life & the men in it. Kudos.

  • Morten Andersen
    Reply

    Black cowboys?!? WTF?!? I had no idea. It´s kinda sad but not really suprisingthat their history is ignored.And hoe Union soldiers protected other Indian tribes from Comanches. History is a lot more nuanced than the Hollwood versions. It also hit methata personreally is never too old to learn something new. And new knowledgeis a great gift, so thanks very much for the post WWH :) Btw, I´m guessing that you know that there were lots of cowboy junkies?It was aconsequence of casualties using and spreading morfineaddiction after the Civil War. History sure gets sanatized.

  • Ronnie Bishop
    Reply

    My first wife's family owned the four 6s ranch and leased property from Quannah Parker, the half white Comanche chief. Burk Burnett. is his name.

  • Larry Guess
    Reply

    I remember squirrel hunting in Texas as a kid. My dad, uncle and I would often hunt down creek beds dried up except for an occasional pot hole of various sizes. We came across a number of water moccasins. Without exception, none of them made any effort to get out of the way or escape. They would either come at us or rear up and wait on us.

    When I spent a couple of summer weeks with my grandparents, my grandma would often take me squirrel hunting. She refused to carry a gun but knew where the squirrels were. I remember shooting a squirrel with a .22, and my grandma telling me to just sit still. With her method, we killed as many as six squirrels out of one tree. Enough for a good meal for all of us.

    If we couldn't find any squirrels we would head to one of the pot holes in a dried up creek bed. We would wade through grass halfway up to our knees. There were so many snakes heading for the water it seemed like the ground was moving. I killed more than a few water moccasins on the way to the pot hole. Then we would sit on the bank, wait for a snake to stick its head up and I would shoot it. I was just a kid so I have an excuse for being an idiot. My grandma was a full blown frontier woman and one of the toughest people I have ever known She was extremely unselfish and must have loved me very much because it seemed one of her greatest pleasures was seeing me enjoy myself. I was extremely blessed to have her for my grandma.