How did the term “cowpoke” come about? Mike Franklin Poteet, Texas The dictionary states that “cowboy” is from 1725 and originally meant just what it says: a boy who tended cows. It became popular in the West during the late 1840s, when it applied to any man who worked with cattle (and also was an adjective, meaning somebody who was reckless). “Cowpoke” dates to about 1881 and originally referred to the cowboys who prodded cattle onto railroad cars with long poles. Nowadays, cowpoke,

March 2007
In This Issue:
Features
Western Books & Movies
- The Train Man
- The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’amor: The Adventure Stories
- From Lead Mines to Gold Fields
- A Time for Peace: Fort Lewis, Colorado, 1878-1891
- The Landscape of Hollywood Westerns
- Getting Away With Murder on the Texas Frontier
- Rock Hudson Screen Legend Collection
- Legendary Outlaws
- Gunsmoke: The Director’s Collection
- Devil’s Gate
- New Mexico Past and Future
- The Hart Brand
- The Tobermory Manuscript
- Valles Caldera: A Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve
- Camino del Norte
- Heaven is a Long Way Off
- A Half-Breed Son-of-a-Basque
More In This Issue
- A Man That Won’t Bend
- Mellonsfolly’s Wild West
- “Western Movie” Night … at the Museum
- Trailing the First Indian Person
- Madonna of the Western Trails
- I’m making models of authentic Western homes/ranches. Can you tell me more about the use of glass in the Old West?
- Is 1954’s Dawn at Socorro based on a true story?
- Railroad’s First Lady
- Have Gun, Safe for Travel?
- Whiskey-Runnin’ Whoop-Up Trail
- Preservation: Depot Heroes
- Tom Horn Hits the Auction Block
- Adair Before They Die
- Was Wyatt Earp as good a hero as we have been led to believe? I’ve read he was involved in a “gold brick” swindle. Can you tell me more about that scam?
- A family Bible belonging to the sister of Brushy Bill, who claimed to be Billy the Kid, listed his birth year as 1879. If this is true, then Brushy Bill couldn’t possibly be Billy the Kid, right?
- How did the term “cowpoke” come about?
- Wickenburg, Arizona
- What shirts were popular in the Old West?
- Don’t Miss the Party Train
- Zane Grey’s Arizona
- Party Like a Cowboy
- Zebulon Pike’s Wandering Explorations