For many years Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie regaled his students with Texas history at the University of Texas at Austin. He was a prolific author with books on Longhorns, Rattlesnakes, Lost Mines, Mustangs, Vaqueros of the Brush Country, Coyotes and a host of others. One of my favorites of his Texas tales is the true and tragic story of the “Murder Steer.”
It all began during an early round up in Brewster County in the Big Bend country in southwest Texas during the 1890’s. The open

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus