Free Republic

Before the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848, American traders who traveled to the Western frontier encountered Spanish vaqueros of northern Mexico. The arrival of railroads and an increased demand for beef during the Civil War drove the need for the cowboy. The earliest known photographs of these iconic Americans are tintypes, taken as early as the 1870s, most likely captured during a trail drive or at an end-of-trail town. The Texas Live Stock Journal wrote glowingly of the cowboy on October 21, 1882: “A man wanting in courage would be as much out of place in a cow-camp, as a...

What Is the National Day of the American Cowboy? The National Day of the American Cowboy campaign was founded by American Cowboy magazine in 2004 to preserve, protect and promote our cowboy and Western heritage and lobby for the passage of a national resolution designating the fourth Saturday of every July a permanent celebration on the national calendar honoring cowboys and cowgirls for their enduring contribution to the courageous, pioneering spirit of America.

Now that Secretary of State Colin Powell has returned from his disastrous "peace" mission to the Middle East, perhaps it's time for the Bush administration to get back to Bush basics and return to its previously-successful America-first, "go-it-alone-if-necessary" foreign policy. Based on various "insider" news reports, it appears that President George W. Bush's instinctive response in these matters has always been to go after the "evil" guys, whoever they are and wherever they are, regardless of what America's erstwhile European and Arab "allies" think. However, lately the Euro-obsessed Mr. Powell, and the arabist-sympathizing bureaucratic dandies in the U.S. state department,...