Wednesday, May 25: Old Blue, a Legend from the Texas Panhandle told by Michael Grauer, McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture, Curator of Cowboy Collections and Western Art, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
In 1865 there were approximately 5 million longhorn cattle in Texas in 1865. If the cowboys could drive the herds to the markets in the north, they would fetch ten times what they were worth in Texas.
The long trip of four-five months required a lead steer, one who was born with a bossy mentality. Colonel Charles Goodnight’s Old Blue was perhaps the most famous of the lead steers. A tall, gunmetal-blue steer with horns that spread wide, Old Blue took the lead position from the Goodnight’s famous JA Ranch, near Palo Duro Canyon to Dodge City, Kansas no less than eight times. Old Blue’s horns now are housed at the Panhandle Plains Museum.
To find out more about Old Blue and to hear other “Tales from HPPR” tune in to High Plains Public Radio Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from May 16-27 at 7:45 AM and 5:44 PM or listen on-line at hppr.org.
