The mule alternative: The saddle mule in the American West - Softcover

9780916095482: The mule alternative: The saddle mule in the American West
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From Scientific American ...a must-have for anyone with an interest in the subject is Mike Stamm's The Mule Alternative. Modest in appearance and presentation, The Mule Alternative is packed with insight into mules and the history of their use in the United States. Stamm discusses the viability of the mule through the letters and diaries of historical figures. A unique approach to say the least, but one that works very well indeed. Practical and poignant (many of the historical passages concern the ravages of war and exploration) by turn,The Mule Alternative has the ability to hook and hold the reader's attention. History buffs and equestrians with an affinity for the mighty mule will be delighted with this book. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. From The New Yorker Wildlife biologist Mike Stamm began research several years ago into a number of questions concerning the historic use of mules during the settlement of the Old West. He wanted to know why many early westerners preferred mules to horses as saddle animals: how mules compared to horses in terms of endurance, hardiness, surefootedness, longevity, and manageability, and why mules have fallen into relative disfavor today. Using historic diaries of early travelers, including mountain men, traders, soldiers, and settlers. Stamm puts together a remarkable testimony in praise of the saddle mule. Stamm includes excellent historical photos and maps in this book. His research will be useful to both mule and horse owners and everyone interested in transportation during the settlement of the West. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Chapter 1 THE QUESTIONS

Some years ago, I began searching the journals and diaries of early western explorers, mountain men, and other pioneers for certain wildlife information (I'm a wildlife biologist by profession). In the process, I noticed that many of these trailblazers not only favored mules as pack and draft animals, but were also commonly riding mules.

This realization flew in the face of what I had grown up to believe. I had thought that only farm boys, hermits, hillbillies, and eccentric fools rode mules. Why were these experienced cross country travelers riding mules? What qualities did these explorers and other pioneers seek that led them to choose these half-horse, half-donkey hybrids rather than horses?

I was aware of the often claimed mule superiorities. Modern mule advocates insist that mules are smarter, more surefooted, tougher, more resistant to disease and lameness, have greater endurance, are "easier to keep" (require less food), and live longer than horses. If these claims were true, perhaps they would help to explain why so many early westerners preferred mules.

But these alleged superiorities of the mule beget about as many questions as they answer. For instance, if mules really are superior in many respects to horses, why are mules, which were once so common, so much less prevalent than horses today? Furthermore, if mules have superior endurance, why do horses win most modern endurance races? And why has the important role of the mule as a saddle animal in the history of the American West been forgotten?

I was curious about mules more for practical than for historical reasons. I had owned horses before but never a mule, and I wondered if a mule might really offer an advantage in the mountains, where I spend much of my free time.

Reading about the severe service to which early western travelers put their livestock, I reasoned that if there really were substantial differences between mules and horses, these differences would have been noticed and, hopefully, recorded in these early western journals and diaries. They were.

Explorers, mountain men, trappers, traders, soldiers, gold rushers, and the pioneer emigrants of the American West, were harder on livestock than anyone (in this country) has been since. These men (and women) regularly, and without reliable maps, challenged rugged, snow-crested mountain ranges, turbulent riv- ers, endless prairies, and vast deserts.

These vanguards of civilization, often as not, had no prior knowledge of the whereabouts of either the most logical route, or of the next grass and water for their animals. Commonly, their animals went without the basic necessities of life for days at a time. Even where livestock feed was plentiful, the explorers and pioneers were often in too much of a hurry, for a variety of reasons, to allow their animals sufficient grazing time.

The grueling journeys of these early pioneers illuminated differences between horses and mules that are seldom, if ever, seen in modern experience. The trails of the nineteenth century West were littered with dead and dying livestock. Many a hard working animal died of dehydration, exhaustion, starvation, or a combination of these.

The Great Basin high desert of western Utah and Nevada is a good example of the sort of hostile real estate that early western pioneers had to contend with. The Basin was extremely stingy with both forage and water and was a consistent killer of livestock.

The incredible mountain man, Jedediah Strong Smith, the first white man to cross the Great Basin, nearly paid for the experience with his life. Searching for furs and trading opportunities, Smith had reached California in 1826 by a round-about route which skirted the Basin's southern edge. Deciding to return to the Rocky Mountains by a more direct route if possible, he embarked in the spring of 1827 with two companions, nine horses, and two mules on a course that would take him through the very heart of the Great Basin Desert (map, page 64).

The undertaking had an ominous beginning. In crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the little group was pinned down by an unseasonably late but nonetheless powerfully potent blizzard that killed two of the horses and a mule. Hard traveling, coupled with scarcity of food and water, exacted a continuous toll of animals, which were butchered and eaten by the trio of mountain men as they gave out.

By the time Smith and his companions escaped from the Basin, only one horse and one mule were left. At one point, one of Smith's two traveling companions dropped, exhausted and dehydrated, unable to travel farther. It was only by the slimmest margin of good fortune that Smith had enough remaining strength to find water, and to effect a rescue.

Next to make a complete crossing of the Great Basin high desert was another famous mountain man: Joseph Reddeford Walker. Walker and his men followed the Humboldt River to California in 1833, losing about 25 horses in crossing the Sierra Nevada.

In the spring of 1834, Walker and his mountain men, returning eastward, recrossed the Sierra Nevada, but much to the south of their fall crossing. Instead of proceeding northward along the eastern base of the Sierra in order to intercept its outbound trail, the party was overcome by the urge to strike a more direct course to the Humboldt River.

A miscalculation in the distance or the direction of the shortcut almost resulted in the group's demise. Before finally stumbling upon a tributary of the Humboldt, Walker's party lost 64 horses, 10 cows, and 15 dogs. It was one of Joe Walker's few failures in life.

John C. Fremont crossed the heart of the Great Basin in 1845, reportedly losing a number of animals in the process. An accurate, first-person account of his crossing, however, is not known to exist.

In the spring of 1846, another eastbound group from California crossed the heart of the Basin, again with the inevitable loss of horses. In this party were two personalities destined to be well recorded in the history of the American West: mountain man James Clyman, and a young California lawyer named Lansford Hastings. Clyman's exploits are a staple of history because his well known journal spans both the fur trapping era and the early emigration period. Lansford Hastings is best known for his zealous promotion of life in California, as the author of The Emigrants' Guide to California, and for the notorious Hastings Cutoff, a shortcut which killed a great quantity of livestock and contributed substantially to the well known Donner-Reed wagon train tragedy.

The experiences of Smith, Walker, Fremont, Hastings, and Donner represent only the early phases of Great Basin travel. The Basin would exact a heavy toll from thousands of later travelers. But enough for now about the Great Basin. The hazards of Great Basin travel are well documented in the words of the travelersthemselves in later chapters.

Although the Great Basin was one of the deadlier pieces of real estate for livestock, it was by no means the only killer. The Sierra Nevada, as has already been implied, was a notable killer of livestock, as were the "hot" deserts of the American Southwest. The poison alkali springs of Wyoming's "forty-mile desert" destroyed countless animals, and the northern Great Plains were especially hard on horses during the U.S. Army's campaigns against the Sioux and Cheyenne in the 1860s and 70s.

The army pushed its horses so hard in pursuit of the elusive Indians of the Great Plains that huge numbers of the animals were lost. In one particular campaign during the summer of 1876, General George Crook's cavalry units lost hundreds of horses to starvation and fatigue.

Although grass was generally available on the plains, the cavalry horses were not well adapted for living off of the land, especially under conditions of hard use. The command traveled too fast in pursuit of Indians to allow the animals sufficient graz-ing time, and they weakened steadily. To make matters worse, the expedition soon ran out of rations for the troopers themselves, and the race to reach a source of food for the troops only accelerated the appalling loss of horses.

Winter campaigns on the Great Plains were hardly any easier. General Grenville M. Dodge lost a thousand cavalry horses in a single snowstorm on the northern plains campaigning against the Sioux and Cheyenne during the winter of 1865. A campaign against Kiowas and Comanches on the southern plains during the winter of 1868 likewise resulted in the loss of large numbers of cavalry horses.

The point of all this is to illustrate the severity of livestock usage in the West of the nineteenth century. The recreational rider of the late twentieth century can scarcely imagine the difficulties of life, for both man and animal, on the frontier of the last century. It is that severity and hardship that make last century's experiences useful in answering questions about livestock capabilities, endurance, and limitations.

This book offers a glimpse of livestock use in the opening of the West, and specifically, examines often claimed differences between horses, mules, and oxen in the light of early western field evidence. While it is not a how-to book, it does offer valuable insights into the handling and behavior of horses and mules. It presents an unusual opportunity to learn from the experiences and mistakes of our extraordinary predecessors who are now long dead.

Review:
Mike Stamm researched the journals left behind by explorers and pioneers of the American West in an effort to gather information pertinent to his work as a wildlife biologist. What he discovered was plenty of material about the use, over a century ago, of mules as pack, draft, and riding animals. The Mule Alternative is a summary of Stamm's findings. It includes quotes, both interesting and entertaining, about explorers', pioneers', and horse soldiers' experiences with and evaluation of the mule as a highly coveted riding animal of the time. Nowhere in the book does the author profess to be the ultimate expert on the mule. He simply relates how a natural curiosity about the mule led him from one point to another and the opinions he formed along the way. -- Western Horseman

Mules? Well, yes. We forget that at one time the West ran on mule power, and that there were good reasons for it. This fascinating little book contains not only much modern mule savvy; but also quotes from frontiersmen who lived and worked with mules daily. You'll get a kick out of it. -- Field and Stream Magazine

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  • PublisherMedicine Wolf Press
  • Publication date1992
  • ISBN 10 0916095487
  • ISBN 13 9780916095482
  • BindingPerfect Paperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages162
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