Driving the Herd
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Frank Reaugh. Driving the Herd. Ca. 1932.
Pastel on Board.
24 x 48"
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“The rocky hilltops are capped with shinoaks; down
on the creek a few cottonwood and hackberries grow.
Occasionally there is a feathery mesquite, but for the most
part the miles and miles of rolling prairie are covered only
with a sparse growth of brownish gray bunch grass and golden
yellow curly mesquite. . . . Along the side of a wide valley, .
. . winds the dusty, much worn trail. Along it for half a
mile before us extends a motley mass of varied color, red
and yellow, black, brown and white, like an inland; slowly
moving flood with surface of bobbing horns and swaying
shoulders and lashing tails. Among them everywhere rise
tributary streams of hazy dust, merging about to form the
great dust cloud that rolls northwestward. . . . The air is
heavy with the smell of dust and cattle. The silence of the
mighty prairie is broken only by the dust-muffled tread of
ten-thousand hoofs making an all-pervading whisper as of
wind among leaves; long horns rattle as they swing together,
there is a creak of saddle leather while above and over all
are the sharp and urgent calls of the cowboys, driving the
herd.”
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