?The Day the Cowboys Quit was inspired by an historic event, a strike against large ranches on the Texas high plains, when the encroachment of an Eastern corporate mentality drove freedom-loving cowboys to drastic measures?no matter the cost.?
Forge Books
February 2008
On Sale: February 5, 2008
Featuring: Hugh Hitchcock
288 pages ISBN: 0765360551 EAN: 9780765360557 Mass Market Paperback Add to Wish List
In later years people often asked Hugh Hitchcock about the
Canadian River cowboy strike of 1883.
Wagon boss Hugh Hitchcock knows the cowboy life better than
most: In 1883 if you’re a cowboy, you can’t own a cow and
you are stigmatized as a drunk. Worse, you are exploited by
the wealthy cattle owners who fence the range, replace
traditions and trust with written rules of employment,
refuse to pay a livable wage, and change things “that ought
to be left alone.” The cowboys working in the Canadian River
country of the Texas Panhandle decide to fight back, to do
the unthinkable: go on strike.
In this celebrated novel, Elmer Kelton uses the true but
little-known Canadian River incident to focus on the changes
brought to ranching by big-money syndicates.