Across the days of dry hot summers, and on lands that are inhospitable to other breeds, they lived on weeds, cactus, and brush far from water, and can handle both hot tropical weather and subzero winters, not unlike the men and women who believed in the Texas Longhorn cattle, placed in the Wichita Mountains.
The early settlers brought with them tough and resistant cattle that were useful as oxen, and for their hides, meat, and milk. Colors vary, with attractively speckled hides occurring as often as solid colors.
In the early 1900s, “improved” British, European, and Indian cattle breeds were brought into the region to boost beef production, and the Texas Longhorn fell out of favor.
In 1927, they were about gone.
These cattle, whose ancestors had walked in southern Spain through the Middle Ages, were brought over and thrived by the hundreds of thousands in Texas, were all but forgotten after the Civil War, with new breeds of cattle brought in to handle production so the US Congress established a national herd at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Cache, Oklahoma.
They are enjoyable as they are hardy, calve easily, are long-lived, and resistant to disease and parasites. They are no longer a wild breed but gentle and intelligent. The cattle are rangy, and cows and steers have long, twisting, spreading horns. They are valued for their reproductive ability and longevity and cows in their late teens are not unusual.
This breed, this piece of Oklahoma, can still continue to be in the heart of the western lands of the state.
Ralph Peck
Photo by Chris Hall
Wichita Mtns National Refuge
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