"Herd Quitters," painting by CM Russel, ND. Larger.
In California, cattle once grazed freely over such vast stretches of terrain that it was hard to see the ground beneath them. But when it came time for an annual rodeo, how were these widely scattered beasts collected?
According to William Heath Davis—who settled permanently in California in 1838-—the process depended upon routine training and the highly developed skills of the Mexican vaqueros.
Although the cattle belonging to the various ranchos were wild, yet they were under training to some extent, and were kept in subjection by constant rodeos. At stated times, say, two or three times a week at first, the cattle on a particular ranch were driven in by the vaqueros, from all parts thereof, to a spot known as the rodeo ground, and kept there for a few hours, when they were allowed to disperse. Shortly they were collected again, once a week perhaps, and then less seldom, until after considerable training, being always driven to the same place, they came to know it. Then, whenever the herd was wanted, all that was necessary for the vaqueros to do was, say twenty-five or thirty of them, to ride out into the hills and valleys and call the cattle, shouting and screaming to them, when the animals would immediately run to the accustomed spot; presently the whole vast herd belonging to the ranch finding their way there.
William Heath Davis was a principle land owner in the San Leandro area and became a leading merchant in San Francisco. He published his memoir Sixty Years in California in 1889, a volume later expanded to Seventy-Five Years in California.
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