Hello List: I recently came across the following reference in a book titled 'He Was Singing This Song' by Jim Bob Tinsley. "Some cattle drovers in the later 1800s actually hired singers or groups of singers to take part in the cattle drives.....................Don Blaylock of Cody, Wyoming, said his grandfather, Frank Casner along with his brothers, Jess, Porter and Claude, were all working cowboys. They all played banjo, fiddle and harmonica also. Frank, along with two of his brothers and his father, started out from Mills County, Texas in 1893, with eleven hundred head of cattle for the Indian reservation around Fort Benton, Montana. With his banjo thrown in the chuck wagon, Don said his grandfather played the banjo and sang from his horse while night herding around the cattle. From Ft. Benton they traveled to Corvallis, Oregon to drive another herd to their home range in Datil, New Mexico." The Casners mentioned appears to be my particular line that I am researching. Because of the ages of the Casners mentioned, I am inclined to think the year may have been 1898 or afterward rather than 1893. Perhaps thre are persons who have researched cowboy lore that might help me. My questions are these. Would boys as young as 13-15 be working on cattle drives? Would the arrival of a heard of 1100 cattle in a town be something newsy enough to be mentioned in the local newspaper? What kind of time frames are we dealing with to move a heard from Mills Co., TX to Choteau Co., MT? What kind of time frames are we dealing with to move a heard form Benton Co., OR to Catron Co., NM? I have always said that genealogy research is the best history lesson; one never knows where it will take you. Any thoughts anyone? This is my first time to find persons that might have been on cattle drives actually in my line. Liz Freeman