No single group of people in all of American history have more written about them than the cowboys of the Old West. They are glorified in song and in novels. Hollywood has made hundreds of movies about cowboys, complete with fast horses and blazing six-shooters. And some of television's most enduring series have been westerns, with cowboys as their heroes.

A Heroic Image

The image most people have of the cowboy comes from these books, movies, and television shows. The cowboy is a man who frequently engages in fistfights or shootouts with desperadoes, battles Indian war parties, and, with the aid of his lightning-fast horse, saves runaway stagecoaches.

He is in love with the wide-open spaces of the West and is at home sleeping under the stars, with only his trusty horse for company. He is resourceful and intelligent in the ways of nature...