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A Cowboy’s Bedroll
Ever wonder how cowboys on the open range got well deserved rest each night? Driving cattle from south in Texas to markets in the Midwest often took many, many months of hot, dusty and lonely work. Aside from the occasional cowboy poem, or a hot meal, what really makes cowboys happy is a comfortable place to lay their heads each night.
And, since there weren’t (and aren’t) too many pop up accommodations on the open range, cowboys pack their own “condominium” of sorts. In a tradition that still lasts to this day, our cowboy will generally sleep in a cowboy bedroll, often times inside a cowboy tipi, together what he will gleefully call a “Cowboy condominium” or the “Cowboy’s Hilton.”
What is a cowboy bedroll?
A cowboy bedroll is cousin to the modern sleeping bag, and is an American Old West precursor, which carried a man’s bed and some personal belongings in a waterproof shell. In Australia, it was called a swag.
It is unclear when or how the cowboy bedroll developed, but has been used in its variations from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, among other places. However, one item just predating the “cowboy” era that was very familiar to most cowboys — many of whom were veterans of the American Civil War — was the soldier’s rolled bedding that was carried slipped diagonally over one…
