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Focus:
The Cracker Cowboy
Now a palette for the imaginations of theme park entrepreneurs, the open prairies of Central Florida were once the haunt of herds of grazing cattle. Lo ng the center of the state’s cattle industry, the area around Kissimmee is for the most part swampland interspersed with timberland. The cowboys who worked it were called “cowhunters,” since much of their time was spent hunting for cattle in the woods. The cowhunters worked brutal 18-hour days riding on “Cracker” or “marsh” ponies descended from those used by Spanish rancheros; the cattle they chased were mainly wild animals left behind by the Spaniards. Unlike his western counterpart, the Florida cowboy had to chase his charges from the intervening swamp and forest on drives, and used a long bullwhip in the process. The “crack” sound of the whip gave him his distinctive nickname.
Fredric Remington, the noted painter of plains Indians and the western cowboy, spent some time in Central Florida around the turn of the century and captured the image of the cracker cowboy in his book of the same name.
The cattle industry has left strong ties in Kissimmee and the surrounding area, and rodeos are still a very popular form of entertainment. For a more intimate look at the life and times of the cowhunters, Polk County’s Lake Kissimmee State Park has a working 1800s replica cow ranch. The Pioneer Museum in Kissimmee maintains a 1905 Cracker House, an old country store, and a boardwalk. Another working ranch is on hand at St. Cloud’s Forever Florida. |
