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Times sure have changed.  Playing “Cowboys & Indians” outside has been replaced with playing “Halo” or “Call of Duty” in a darkened room.  Heck, it’s probably so politically incorrect to even mention “Cowboys & Indians” that someone somewhere is having a tizzy.  The American cowboy is an icon of grit, honor, independence and masculinity.  Hard work, long days, and little pay except for the open sky, a horse to ride, a hot meal and a drink or two to wet your whistle.  Maybe even a dance with a pretty girl if yer’ lucky– and don’t stink to high heaven.

The 1910s – 1930s saw the Wild West American lifestyle move largely from a way of life, to ever-increasing faded memories and mythology.  Our country was getting smaller. Technology and transportation were ushering in a new era of industrialized cities and advanced accessibility.  The real jean-wearin’ cowboy lifestyle of days past were kept alive over the decades largely through the Western fashions worn by the stars of silver screen and music.

These images are some of my favorite captures of the American cowboy at the very end of his reign– many not surprisingly taken by LIFE photography giants like Loomis Dean, and Ralph Crane to name a few. Some, unfortunately, are uncredited.  If you know the pic, give me a shout  so I can give the photographer their due, please.

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circa 1934– “Rear view of a man wearing chaps and spurs”  –Photo McCormic Co., Amarillo, Texas.

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Lubbock, TX, 1940– Matador, A Texas Ranch: Seven cowboys sitting along corral fence draped w. their chaps (which they don’t wear while not working), as they wait for brand irons to heat up during cattle roundup at Matador Ranch, the second largest in the state.  –photo by Hansel Mieth

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1960– Cowboys on long cattle-drive from South Dakota to Nebraska.  –photo by Grey Villet

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1960– Cowboys on long cattle-drive from South Dakota to Nebraska.  –photo by Grey Villet

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Cattle Drive In Montana –Photo by Ralph Crane

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1943– Father and son, owners of a 35,000 acre ranch in west Texas.  –photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt

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1960– Clarence Hailey Long, foreman on the JA spread in Texas  –Photo by Leonard McCombe

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TX, 1939–  Matador Ranch chuck wagon pulled by mules sets out across Texas plains behind unseen roundup crew during a cattle drive.  –Hansel Mieth

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I’ll see your Coca Cola– and raise you a tall whiskey.  Phil Phillips (left), longtime foreman at the Double H or HH ranch in New Mexico.

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Shaving at the bar in yer’ chaps with one of them new-fangled electric razors.  Phil Phillips, longtime foreman at the Double H ranch, or HH ranch, in New Mexico.

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My kind of office party. Love this. Phil Phillips (double-fisting), longtime foreman at the Double H ranch, or HH ranch, in New Mexico.

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HH Ranch… Would love to know the story… Phil Phillips, longtime foreman at the Double H ranch, or HH ranch, in New Mexico.

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Love this shot– as a denim nut– this simple, honest image focused on his Levi jeans gives me the chills.

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Life on the range… photo credit?

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CA, 1949– Silhouette of cowboy mounted on horse.  –photo by Allan Grant

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Gatorade?  Coffee was the Cowboy’s Gatorade, son.  Great shot, who’s the photographer?

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Takin’ a load off, chowing some grub in the back of one of them mechanical horses.  Love this shot.

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Imagine lugging a kitchen behind you every day, prepping and making the meals, cleaning, packing…

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Utah, 1947– Man sitting holding his horse’s reins  –Loomis Dean

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Cattle Drive In Montana –Photo by Ralph Crane

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Cattle Drive In Montana –Photo by Ralph Crane

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