A limited edition bronze mantle piece.
The Trailblazers: Lean, mean and rangy, the Texas Longhorn was tough enough to stave off rattlesnakes, wolves and coyotes. It thrived on the open range like the buffalo before it, without care, under harsh, dry conditions where lesser breeds foundered and fell. Descended from maverick, Spanish stock, the Longhorn multiplied across Texas into the millions, wild, fat and wooly, until the end of the Civil War. A handful of courageous cattlemen saw the excess beef as money on the hoof to feed a hungry and impoverished post-war nation. The hardy longhorn breed withstood the long dry daily marches and the harder nights with their flash floods, storms and stampedes. The endured disease, river crossings and scarce grazing grounds for months at a time. Over 10 million cattle blazed the trails north from Texas between 1869 to 1900, a tribute of courage and strength to both the men who drove them and the breed who made it possible.
excerpted from collected works: The Trailblazers, Texas, the works of J Frank Dobie and others.
