I’ve read that a cowboy worked “for forty (40) and found.” I gather that a cowboy worked for $40 per month, but what is meant by the term found?
Stephen T. Frazier
Raleigh, North Carolina
“Found” on a cow ranch meant a place to sleep in the bunkhouse and grub. On the trail, it meant grub and a place to sleep under the stars. The usual pay for a regular cowhand was $30 a month. Top hands, trail bosses and the cook were paid more.

January/February 2007
In This Issue:
Features
Western Books & Movies
- A Half-Breed Son-of-a-Basque
- Tales From the Journey of the Dead
- Discovering Natural Horsemanship
- Beyond the Missouri
- Oh, Give me a Home
- Bull by the Tale
- Noah’s Ride
- Dream Wheels
- Saint Patrick’s Battalion
- Western Film Noir Vol. 1
- Texas Women on the Cattle Trails
- Nobody’s Horses
- Digging Up Massacres
- Broken Trail
- Singing Cowboys
- Mexican Gold Trail
- The Clark Gable Collection: The Tall Men
- Guns of Vengance Trail
More In This Issue
- Zane Grey’s Arizona
- Party Like a Cowboy
- Don’t Miss the Party Train
- Zebulon Pike’s Wandering Explorations
- On a Mission in San Antone
- Top 10 Western Meals to Eat
- Range Story Tops Rare Book Sale
- On a Mission in San Antone
- Preservation: Indian Days of ’76 Rodeo
- Top 10 True Western Towns of 2007
- Austin, Texas
- True West’s Best of the West 2007 Winners
- Screamin’ Sheb
- What was the largest outlaw gang—in terms of numbers of members—in the Old West? Butch & Sundance were hardly a gang, numbering a handful at most.
- Badges are traditionally placed on the left side of the chest, covering the heart. Why does a drawing of Marshal Henry Brown show a badge displayed on the right side in the September 2006 issue?
- In Custer, South Dakota, a downtown building sign states that it is the site of a saloon where Flyspeck Billy murdered Abe Barnes in February 1881. Can you tell me anything more about this?
- I’ve read that a cowboy worked “for forty (40) and found.”
- I read that an Arizona outlaw beat a check kiting charge by eating the evidence during the trial. True or false?
- In the Old West, did city marshals and county sheriffs have what we now call a police blotter?