WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- For Whitman's Scott Whinfrey, living the life of a cowboy is life-long dream. While he was not born into a ranching family, he says, "My mother was given a little red cowboy hat at her baby shower, so you might say I was born a cowboy." And while he has spent most of his life in "some of the most un-cowboy-like cities in America," he has never wavered from telling people "I was going to be a cowboy."
"For my Watson project, I will pursue this long held passion of being a cowboy," he says. His goals for the next year, as he travels through Australia and Mexico, are simple: "To ride on the back of a horse and to drive a herd of cattle across miles and miles of open landscape. To sleep on the ground, work hard from dawn to dusk, brand cattle and doctor calves in the middle of nowhere. At the end of the day I imagine sharing a drink with other cowpunchers while we exaggerate stories about horses we've ridden, people we've known, and storms we've weathered."
Whinfrey, who learned to ride horses at age 13, recognizes as much as anyone that cowboys are a dying breed. "While the actual American cowboy had his heyday in the second half of the 19th century, the occupation is being slowly replaced by modern technology in the beef and horse industries," he says. "As populations expand and open space is rapidly urbanized, large grazing areas will become less common until cowboys are no longer needed to herd and work stock."
Nonetheless, the cowboy remains ingrained in American culture, Whinfrey says. "He dominates our television, film, advertisements, literature and imaginations. People spend millions of dollars each year on vacations attempting to duplicate the rigors and lives of a disappearing culture. I, too, want to be part of the action, to capture and preserve their stories and skills by working alongside contemporary cowboys."
For anyone tempted to ask Whinfrey why, in lieu of going to Australia and Mexico, he doesn't work at a ranch in the western U.S., the answer is a short one: "Because I already have. For the past three years I have worked on two separate cattle ranches during summer as well as winter vacations."
"Furthermore," he adds, "I don't see cowboys as being uniquely American. Numerous countries have traditional cattle-driving heroes with rugged pastoral histories based on ranching. While we have the buckeroo, Mexico has its vaqueros, and Australia has its jackaroos."
Of particular interest to Whinfrey is the Mexican vaquero because it was the direct predecessor of the American cowboy. Nearly all modern ranching equipment and herding/riding techniques in use today in the western U.S. find their roots in the vaquero tradition, he says. "In addition, the Mexican society I have seen as an outsider reveals a culture just as infatuated with its cowboys as Americans. Cowboy boots and Hispanic-style Stetson hats are enormously popular throughout the country, ranching is still a prominent occupation in much of central and northern Mexico, and the charros (Mexico's quasi-elite cowboys) continually put on exhibitions of their skill, very similar to American rodeos."
Even though the Australian jackaroo and American buckeroo had little direct contact with one another, they developed in a remarkably similar fashion, Whinfrey says. "Due to the arid environment and lack of development, many regions of Australia still have remarkably large ranches. One cattle station I contacted, for instance, had well over 1,500 square miles of pasture. With so much open space to run cattle, the jackaroo is alive and well, as he is still an essential part of the beef industry."
Whinfrey spent his first summer break at Whitman working at a cattle ranch in the Walla Walla area. His summer and winter breaks over the next two years were spent at a cattle and horse ranch in central Colorado that derived its primary income from organizing horse-packing trips into the Rocky Mountains.
"The American cowboys I met have all had a strong sense of identity and pride in their way of life," Whinfrey says. "They often described to me the qualities of living in wide-open spaces, working with animals, and a sense of being free from the constraints of technology and civilization. Jackaroos and vaqueros will inevitably have their own unique sense of identity and agency, which I will attempt to observe first-hand."
Whinfrey expects to find seasonal fluctuations in ranch work in both Australia and Mexico. "The busiest times of the year generally occur after the thaws of winter and after the heat of summer," he says. During less busy times, he plans to meet other cowboys by traveling from ranch to ranch, listening to their stories and histories and learning new skills and hobbies. Last summer, he notes, an American cowboy "taught me how to design, tool and sew leather tack and other cowboy gear. He took enormous pride in crafting leather, spending hours meticulously placing each stamp and stitch. I imagine the cowboys of Australia and Mexico will share a similar pride in their work."
Whinfrey plans to begin his year's travel this summer in Australia, using two cattle stations as bases of operation. One ranch is located in the high country on the eastern coast, about 300 miles south of Sydney. The other is located in the Simpson Desert, in the interior of Australia, more than 100 miles south of Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
Later in the year, Whinfrey will travel to northern Mexico to enroll in an intensive, four-week language course. While he doesn't speak Spanish at the moment, he expects to learn enough of the language to get by. "Cowboys are not known for their correct grammar or formality, and I would imagine vaqueros fit this assumption as well," he says. Whinfrey has two contacts in Mexico, a family-run cattle ranch in Guaymas, Sonora, and the owner of several ranches throughout northern Mexico.
Cowboy music is one existing hobby that Whinfrey hopes to explore during his Watson travels. "I am no poet, but my only saving grace in the music world is my ability to sing," he says. "Three years ago I taught myself to play enough chords on the guitar to accompany myself. While working in Colorado during the last two years I made a little extra money as a cowboy singer for dude ranches."
Whinfrey is by no means intimidated by the challenges that lay ahead for a novice cowboy in two foreign lands. "In my opinion, hardships just make things more interesting," he says. "I am a physically and mentally tough individual. Ranch work isn't always fun. But part of what I have always loved about the cowboy life is that it is hard. Not everybody can do it."
In making new friends among Mexico's vaqueros and Australia's jackaroos, Whinfrey looks forward to gauging their awareness of their own role in a somewhat paradoxical Frontier Myth. "Cowboys seemingly choose to reject crowded lives in urban areas for the countryside in order to raise a product that will inevitably feed and clothe the people they are escaping from. In addition, their presence on the 'unsettled' and 'open' land ironically brings a piece of civilization to the land. I want to ascertain each cowboy's awareness of this myth, his gradually disappearing way of life, and his attempt to maintain and pass on his traditional skills."
Whinfrey, a 1999 graduate of Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif., is the son of Don and Ginger Whinfrey of Manhattan Beach. A history major at Whitman, Whinfrey says his possible future plans range from completing a teaching degree or master's degree to a career in ranching.
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