Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The last cowboys of Los Angeles
San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com ^ | Aug 5, 2024 | By Paula Mejía, Contributing LA Culture Editor

Posted on 08/20/2024 7:48:19 PM PDT by thecodont

While growing up around Burbank, one of many suburbs butting up against Los Angeles proper, Melissa Perez and her friends would spend their summers riding around their neighborhood on horseback. “We were like the little brats on our horses,” Perez laughs. From early morning until sundown, the pack of young equestrians would sneakily traipse through the hills and horse trails tucked into Griffith Park, where they technically weren’t allowed to go. Perez would have such a blast that she’d sometimes forget to eat lunch, snacking on her horse’s carrots whenever she got peckish.

The Burbank Rancho Equestrian District sits just across the freeway from Griffith Park and is one of the few areas zoned for equestrian activities in the near-center of LA. Clomping around on horseback is a way of life for residents — so much so that it’s not uncommon to see road signs cautioning drivers to keep an eye out for passing equestrians and kids on their way to school. A handful of tack stores and stables fleck the area around Riverside Drive, a major thoroughfare coursing through the neighborhood, and the nearby Los Angeles Equestrian Center boards horses as well.

While the neighborhood still bears hallmarks of its cowboy history, real-life cowboys have been leaving in droves.

“As time has gone on, people have sold out,” says Perez, who owns one of the few remaining tack stores on Riverside Drive, TriKee Tack, located right on the Burbank-Glendale border. As the years go by, more of her friends and neighbors have relocated to places more amenable to their day-to-day existence, such as Arizona, Idaho and Texas.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: horses; losangeles
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 08/20/2024 7:48:19 PM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: thecodont

In Northern California, the town of Los Altos Hills (San Francisco Peninsula) built up an amazing and large equestrian trail system in the 50s. The trails ran on easements between the one-acre properties.

More than half the town had horses and the trails were used all the time. Now it’s rare to see a horse in the town and you hardly ever see anybody riding the trails. But at least the trails are still there and great for hiking.

The “Westwind Barn” is still there and packed with young girls learning to ride.


2 posted on 08/20/2024 7:52:59 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

they could have come on down to Norco aka “Horse Town” but I don’t blame them for leaving the state


3 posted on 08/20/2024 8:15:09 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueplum; ProtectOurFreedom

There’s an interesting paragraph toward the end of the story, that seems to sense the spirit of the times is changing.

...

Monaghan sees the surge in popularity surrounding cowboy culture as rooted in something much larger. “I think it’s a reckoning of being American, especially right now,” he says.


4 posted on 08/20/2024 8:27:09 PM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

I just finished the entire article. It’s quite good.

I’ve been watching the entire 19 year run of “Death Valley Days” for a couple months now. They produced dramatized dramas of life in the west from about 1840 to 1900. All are based on true stories (some loosely, some following the actual events quite closely). But all the stories tell of the amazing opening of the west from the first wagon trains to the closing of the frontier in 1890. The stories are wonderful and deal quite fairly with the Indians, the Vaqueros, the early Californios and blacks and Mexicans in the west. There are also several episodes about women’s rights and many deal with the woman’s role on the frontier.

I’m up to Season 9 now (1961) and have quite a few seasons and episodes to go.

I had to laugh at “Michelle Gass, the CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., said earlier this summer that the company has seen a huge surge in boot, skirt and jeans sales.” We have a place in North Idaho next door to Montana and our local farm and ranch stores (North 40 and Murdoch’s) carry great selections of western clothes — except they aren’t decoration for the bars in Los Angeles. These are the work and dress clothes for our local ranchers and farmers.


5 posted on 08/20/2024 8:59:33 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom
I guess the stories in Bonanza happened in that time period.

One episode I remembered featured the teenaged Albert A. Michelson, who's name is known to every physics student for the very important series of experiments he did later in life, in collaboration with Edward Morley.

Albert Michelson actually did live in Virginia City, Nevada, as a boy. Since he was born in 1852, he would have been the age depicted in that episode of Bonanza sometime around 1868. That helped me get a grasp on the time in history during which that program was set.

6 posted on 08/20/2024 9:10:41 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: blueplum

do you mean ‘up’ to norcal genius?


7 posted on 08/20/2024 9:10:44 PM PDT by A strike ("Rise Peter, kill and eat.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

Good memory! I don’t recall that episode, but I wasn’t a huge “Bonanza” fan.

“That helped me get a grasp on the time in history during which that program was set.”

Indeed. Watching “Death Valley Days” does that for me today. The set designers did a fantastic job creating late 1800s towns, ranches, farms, and building interiors, too. A lot of the sets were hokey (like fake mine entrances), but most were realistic and a lot was shot on location.


8 posted on 08/20/2024 9:17:18 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: A strike; blueplum
do you mean ‘up’ to norcal genius?

Norco California is in Riverside County...so no.

9 posted on 08/20/2024 9:39:21 PM PDT by mac_truck (aide toi et dieu t'aidera)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

My 8-year old daughter rode a friend’s horse a few times in the Griffith Park area of L.A. back in the 1990’s. We shortly moved to rural Oklahoma. As promised, within 6 months we had a little appaloosa and a smallish full-sized horse for the kids to ride. We had trail rides and play days on those great partners for my kids. It was a great experience that they remember fondly as adults.

Horses are fun and smart. Kids learn a lot about responsibility by being around them. (They are also dangerous.)


10 posted on 08/20/2024 9:40:36 PM PDT by oldplayer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom
I liked Death Valley Days too, but where I lived it was shown on Saturday afternoons, and I wasn't always home to watch it.

I remember they were sponsored by "20 Mule Team Borax."

Much later I learned (with the help of the internet) that Borax was mined in California, and that the mineral from which it was made was called "tinkle." One place it was mined was named for its elemental ingredient, Boron. Boron California is still there, and is dominated by an enormous open-pit boron mine.

The early boron miners knew how to tell they had the real thing by throwing it in a campfire; it would turn the flames green.

Didn't Ronald Reagan do the intro and outtro narration for at least some episodes?

11 posted on 08/20/2024 9:58:49 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

My husband’s grandfather worked on the mule trains from the boron mine.


12 posted on 08/20/2024 10:13:54 PM PDT by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

Yes, Ronald Reagan did do that.


13 posted on 08/20/2024 10:26:26 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: oldplayer
I once went with a group that rode horses from the Hollywood side of Griffith Park to the Burbank side. We had dinner at this Mexican restaurant right outside the gates of the Equestrian Center and then rode the horses back to Hollywood.

Great memory.

14 posted on 08/20/2024 10:28:01 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (Kafka was an optimist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom
These are the work and dress clothes for our local ranchers and farmers.

Functional fashion!

15 posted on 08/20/2024 10:43:24 PM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom
The first host was the "Old Ranger," actor Stanley Andrews. He fit the part really well. There were four hosts overall including Ronald Reagan who quit to run for governor of CA. Dale Robertson was famous for another TV Western, "Tales of Wells Fargo."

The story behind Death Valley Days is quite interesting. A woman named Ruth Goodman wrote the show for radio. She was an easterner and for 14 years Woodman went to Death Valley each summer to gather information that she could use in her scripts The radio show ran from 1930 to 1951. A 1962 newspaper article noted, "Mrs. Woodman has written every one of the Death Valley Days scripts (both radio and television) for 31 years -- which amounts to more than 1,000 stories." She was really amazing.


16 posted on 08/20/2024 10:45:52 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom; ProtectOurFreedom
I guess the stories in Bonanza happened in that time period.

One episode I remembered featured the teenaged Albert A. Michelson, who's name is known to every physics student for the very important series of experiments he did later in life, in collaboration with Edward Morley.

Albert Michelson actually did live in Virginia City, Nevada, as a boy. Since he was born in 1852, he would have been the age depicted in that episode of Bonanza sometime around 1868. That helped me get a grasp on the time in history during which that program was set.

One of my physics professors made a point of mentioning that particular Bonanza episode. As I recall, in it young Michelson ended up accidentally starting a fire with a parabolic lens.

TV was more well-written in those days.

17 posted on 08/20/2024 10:46:48 PM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom; ProtectOurFreedom
The early boron miners knew how to tell they had the real thing by throwing it in a campfire; it would turn the flames green.

I've heard Tide detergent does the same thing (it must contain some borax).

18 posted on 08/20/2024 10:48:03 PM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

“TV was more well-written in those days.”

That is VERY true. You didn’t see any of the childish and infantile humor prevalent in today’s tv wasteland. The stories are chock full of human interest. Those themes are eternal.


19 posted on 08/20/2024 10:49:54 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: thecodont
The actual stories from Death Valley about borax mining are fascinating. The ore wagons they used were specially created to carry the ore through the desert and were the biggest freight wagons ever created. There were two tandem ore wagons and behind them was a tanker with 1,200 gallons of water for the mules and men on their trek through the desert. There were many recreations of the famous 20 mule teams and wagons done until maybe the 60s keeping the old history alive. With the mules, the caravan stretched over 180 feet and, going around sharp curves, the driver could not see the lead mule.

I found an interesting tidbit in my reading about borax in California. There were processing plants in Alameda, California (not far from me) and in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings constructed in the United States was the Pacific Coast Borax Company's refinery in Alameda, California, designed by Ernest L. Ransome and built in 1893. It was the first to use ribbed floor construction as well as concrete columns.

"Borax Smith", founded Pacific Borax and was a promoter of the "twenty-mule team."

In those days, it didn't take a Kamala Harris, $42 billion and an ocean full of corruption to get nothing done. Old "Borax" knew how to get things done and made himself a huge fortune.

20 posted on 08/20/2024 11:00:36 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“When exposing a crime is treated like a crime, you are being ruled by criminals” – Edward Snowden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson