b'DID YOU KNOW, IN THE OLD WEST.By Lee Anderson, Old West Living Historian, Award Winning Author, and Old School HorsemanLee Anderson and his horse, Concho, are well known around the state doing presentations in schools,corporate events, and civic events. Learn more about them and his book on his website. historicaloldwest.orgSince it was populated by themore arrows while the settler was reloading. In New Jersey,R oping wasnt the only Spanish two or three centuriesSamuel Colt developed and manufactured the worlds firstthing the American before the Americans showedsuccessful revolver, the Patterson, which had only five shots.cowboys borrowed. up, many of the words commonly used in the oldIt was provided to the Texas Rangers and proved to be veryBy the 1500s, with hundreds West have Spanish origins. successful. Texan, Sam Walker, made several suggestions forof thousands of cattle roaming the Mexican open O ne I find particularly interestingimproving the revolver which Colt adopted, one of whichrange, proof of ownership became a very real problem. This was increasing it to six shots. The Texas Rangers made was addressed by the very first cattlemens association called is the name of the state of Texas.Colts six-shooter its official MESTA. Now, the branding of cattle had been common for In the 1600s, the natives thathandgun in 1847. centuries but MESTA developed a system for registering a met the first Spanish expedition inF or various reasons, peoplebrand with the government which maintained the brand-the Matagorda Bay area of Mexicobooks. This occurred in June of 1529 and was the very first announced their peaceful intentions byherding cattle need sometime, anywhere in the world, a brand became legal proof of shouting friendsin their language. In their language, themeans to stop and controlownership in a court of law. word for friends sounded like tay-has to the Spanish andindividual animals. A human they used it as the name for the natives. In the Spanishon foot doesnt have the speed language the H sound, when written, is represented by theor the endurance to keep up letter X. Therefore, tay-has was written asTexas.Thewith cattle on an open range. It was in Mexico in thelater Anglo immigrants, of course, pronounced the Spanishlate 1600s, that the method for controlling individual written word Texas with the hard, English X and we stillanimals was lassoing them with a lariat which is then mispronounce it today. secured to the horn of a saddle. S peaking of Texas, the well-known six gun wasIt took a century or so for this system to be perfected in Mexico. specifically of Texas origin. In defending themselvesThis system seems so simple against the hostileComanches, theand effective that it is difficult to Texan settlers foundimagine any other system being that a single shot long gunused or why it took so long to was not effective. The native tribesdiscover it. The later American quickly learned that once a settler had firedcowboys borrowed this system his single shot they could attack and fire a dozen orfrom the Mexican vaqueros. Susan Abare928-713-7472SAbare@AwardRealty.com LUXURY HOMES SECOND HOMES IM LOCAL ANDPREMIUM HORSE PROPERTIES FULL TIME INVESTMENT PROPERTIES CONGRESS, ARIZONA HORSE PROPERTY HOME LOTSACREAGEONE 4 AC HORSE PROPERTY LEFT TOWN WATER, SOLD POWER, PIPE FENCE AND ALL USABLE. OTHERS TO SHOW WITH MORE OR LESS ACREAGE.Arizona is a Lifestyle.32 January 2021'