In 1965, Mr. Schreiner hit upon the idea of staging a re-enactment of a trail drive from San Antonio to Dodge City to observe the 100th anniversary of the first trail drive after the Civil War.
"Have you, uh, got a horse?" asked Ed, one of the drovers, or cattle prodders, on the trail drive.
To reach the head of the trail, drive to Lemont, five minutes from State College, and go to the end of Mount Nittany Road.
In Pawnee, Okla., I pulled up to the encampment of a cattle trail drive whose organizers I had arranged to interview.
In the middle of our interview, the trail drive folks suggested that we "ride on down" to see the longhorn cattle that they had described and that I hoped to photograph.
But modern scholarship confirms that most cowboys were no more strangers to style than modern bachelors are, frequently buying new clothes and fancy tooled boots when flush with money at the end of a trail drive.
Mr. McMurtry recalls the waning days of the trail drive (soon to be replaced by the advent of big cattle trucks) and the squabbling produced by the county's decision, in the centennial year of 1980, to name some local roads in honor of prominent pioneer families.
A two-driver package, which includes a lesson in basic four-wheel-drive operation, a two-hour trail drive and one nights lodging at the Equinox, is $664 800-362-4747 800-362-4747
During the great trail drives of the last century maybe as many as 5,000 black cowboys rode from the herds.
In Vermont, students can choose mountain and logging-trail drives in the Green Mountains or the school's 2.6-mile obstacle course.
Poems were traditionally recited around the campfire during great cattle trail drives or roundups, in bunkhouses and line camps, and in bars and saloons.
