TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Book celebrates life of the Florida cowboy

Photo by CARLTON WARD JR.

St. Lucie County cattleman Buddy Adams steers a herd toward the cowpens at the Adams Ranch, where he has been foreman for more than 40 years.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2009

TAMPA - Hidden between the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coastlines, amid 7 million acres of this state's interior, is the world of the Florida cowboy.

Outshone by tourist attractions and hundreds of miles of beaches, the state's cattle industry manages 1.75 million head of beef on one-fifth of the peninsula, yet remains virtually invisible. It's an insular world of foggy morning pastures penetrated by cracking whips, cows and bulls chased through razor-sharp saw palmetto and howling cattle dogs keeping herds in check.

It's a world photographer Carlton Ward Jr. explores in his new book, "Florida Cowboys: Keepers of the Last Frontier" (University Press of Florida, $45). The 234-page book, full of dramatic depictions of life on the range and testimonials by still-living pioneers, reads like a love letter to the cowboy life.

An exhibition of Ward's photographs is featured at the Tampa Bay History Center in downtown Tampa through December.

Ward is somewhat of an insider. His family's Carlton "C" brand has been registered since the 1850s in Hillsborough County. Though he grew up in Clearwater, he spent time on horseback as a child riding on the family's Hardee County homestead.

Ward's goal for the book is to give outsiders a glimpse of the industry his family helped establish. Time spent in college in North Carolina made him realize how quickly the demand of development was erasing the lifestyle.

"No one in North Carolina knew we had anything other than Disney World and the beach," he says. "For that matter, I could have talked to people in Tampa to get that, too."

Florida's shallow population roots and lack of appreciation for the state's history accelerate the loss of land used for grazing and conservation, he says.

"I don't think anywhere is like Florida in how separate the urban and the rural are," he says.

"It sounds cynical, but truthfully most people in South Tampa might as well live in Charlotte or Atlanta. They don't know that the largest saltwater estuary in the state is right here in Tampa Bay or that there are five major rivers feeding into it. The sense of place is not here at all."

The cattle industry's ranchlands are a rich and important element of the state's history, and home to valuable wetlands that offer a haven to threatened species of bears, panthers and birds. Ward wants the book to show how industry and nature can co-exist with mutual benefits – and how uncontrolled development can threaten both.

"I started out thinking the book was going to be primarily environmental," he says. "In the end it's two-thirds or more cultural. I'm drawn to the stories where the future of the landscape and the future of the culture are interwoven. It's that way with these ranchers."

Freddie Griffin has been a cowboy at the Lykes Ranch in Brighton for 34 years. The Lykes Ranch, located in Glades and Highlands counties, extends for 337,000 acres and is one of the largest contiguous pieces of land in the state.

Apalachicola National Forest provides a glimpse of what it was like for the pioneer cowboys when Cracker cattle ran wild among longleaf pines, palmetto, and wiregrass. When plant explorer William Bartram traveled to Florida in the 1800s, he described vistas where he could see for miles beneath canopies of grand pines. Today, a few herds of original Cracker cattle have been preserved, here managed by cowboy Jake Summers from the saddle of his Cracker horse on land he leases from the Department of Forestry. His cattle grow and reproduce without supplemental feed in a landscape where modern livestock would poorly survive.

Sunrise over the Myakka Ranchlands, an area used for cattle ranching which encompasses 18,739 acres bordering Myakka River State Park. These lands contain habitat for at least 17 rare species, including bald eagle, swallow-tailed kite and Florida black bear. Protection of the Myakka Ranchlands would form a contiguous area of conservation land of more than 114,000 acres.

Leaving the stables before dawn, cowboys disappear into the blue mist. They will reappear hours later, pushing a herd back to the pens. In Florida this is part of a daily cycle which has been played out for more than a century. "All Florida cowboys all have a yellow rain slicker on the back of their saddle," Ward says. "They work in the tropics and it rains. Peak time for shipping cattle often is July and August, when it's brutally hot and rains every afternoon."

Each year, 50 Cuban cowboys compete against others from Latin America at the Boyeros Rodeo convenes outside Havana. Exporting cattle to Cuba from Fort Myers and the port of Tampa was Florida's first big industry. The Lykes family once operated ranches in Cuba before the revolution and shipped livestock on a wooden schooner from their property in Tampa's Ballast Point area.

Sean Moss carries a tired calf to help it keep up with the herd as they move across the Adams Ranch in St. Lucie County. The 50,000-acre ranch, established in 1937, was where the first Braford cattle were created by crossing Hereford bulls with Brahman cows that could better withstand Florida's extreme heat.

On Nov. 21, the Tampa Bay History Center will host the Florida Cowboy Living Heritage Celebration, including a cattle drive on Old Water Street by the Florida Cattlemen's Association and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Reenactors will set up a Cracker cowboy camp in adjacent Cotanchobee Park.

Carlton Ward Jr. will sign copies of his "Florida Cowboys" book, and there will be wood-making demonstrations and children's activities.

Also at the history center is the "Cowmen & Crackers" exhibit, which showcases Florida's cattle ranching history and puts viewers in the middle of a cattle drive. The exhibit will remain at the center until Dec. 19.

IF YOU GO

Cattle drive

WHEN: Cattle drive led by the Florida Cattleman's Association and the Seminole Tribe of Florida begins Nov. 21 at 10 a.m.

WHERE: Along Old Water Street, from Morgan Street to the Tampa Bay History Center, 801 Old Water St., Tampa. Spectators are encouraged to watch from Cotanchobee Park, next to the museum, then visit the adjacent Cracker cow camp.

ADMISSION: Free

Museum activities

WHAT: Exhibit "Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition," on loan to the Tampa Bay History Center from the Florida Folklife Program in Tallahassee

"Cowmen & Crackers" exhibit, whip-making workshop, cowboy storytelling, youth activities

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday ("Cowmen" continues through Dec. 19).

WHERE: Tampa Bay History, 801 Old Water St., Tampa

ADMISSION: $12; $10 for ages 65 and older, ages 13-17, and students with ID; $7 for ages 4-12.

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT