Forney’s John Brown and his CHUCKWAGON Adventures

Part Three

We left the scene last week with breakfast over and “COOKIE” preparing for the next meal. Fast-forward as cookie has moved on down the trail, picked up kindling, thought up the evening’s menu and possible “treats,” dug his fire trenches, and put on the coffee……supper…..a song or two…..and off to sleep for the hands and cookie……morning would come too soon!

Typical trail drive numbers: 2500 to 3000 head of cattle, 60 horses, 8 cowboys (drovers), 1 or 2 horse “wranglers,” 1 cook and a possible helper, a chuckwagon and sometimes a “hoodlum” wagon, 1 trail boss.

Sample of quantity of food provisions necessary for a 1,000 miles cattle drive: 300 pounds salt pork, 500 pounds flour, 100 pounds coffee, 50 pounds baking powder, 200 pounds onions, 500 pounds beans, 50 pounds sourdough “starter,” 500 pounds potatoes, 50 pounds lard, 200 pounds dried fruit, and a few miscellaneous things for the chuckwagon “pantry.” A “weak” steer might be slaughtered along the way for extra meat, and sometimes things were “picked up” at farms along the trail or in a town or three.

But no matter what was in the skillet or oven, the coffee was always “ON.” And, the hands and any visitors to camp would partake freely of the hot and black liquid (always “black”) which picked up the name of “sixshooter” coffee, because legend and rumors have it that the coffee was strong enough to “float a revolver!”

After recounting many of the details of the previous two articles, Mr. Brown again emphasized that the association of which he is a part is greatly involved and concerned with fund-raising events of all types.

One example was held at Damnrox Ranch, home of Gayle and J. D. Cross, just outside of Valley Mills, where a “genuine chuckwagon meal” was served to Valley Mills and Bosque County 1st Responders (Valley Mills Fire Department and Police Department and Bosque County Sheriff’s Department) as one way of thanking them for keeping the county and Valley Mills safe.

The CHUCKWAGON featured a Flint wagon with a workable chuck box, cooking on the ground over a wood fire with cast iron Dutch ovens, and an “official” dishwashing station. The wagon belongs to Sam Howell, who brought it from his home in Odessa, and he and the members of the American Chuck Wagon Association did all the cooking and serving! Howell is the President of the association and acquired the wagon in 1996 and has been competing, travelling, and fundraising ever since. John says that with his long, white beard, “He looks a lot like Santa Claus!” Howell says that he has pulled the same wagon through the streets of Ft. Worth and other cities but that he usually transports it upon a trailer and then sets it up at events. He also allows that his father and he attended an “event” in Hobbs, New Mexico, where they were convinced to “get a wagon” and to compete in an event in Lubbock, Texas, and that when they got there, more than 40 wagons were competing—and they were “hooked.”

At Valley Mills, the meal, completely prepared just like on a cattle drive, consisted of beef tips, potatoes, beans, rolls, and coconut cream pies—all cooked in cast iron Dutch ovens over an open wood fire. (I would have liked to have seen John Brown and Sam Howell going back-and-forth along the fire trench, keeping all the food items at just the right temperatures without thermostats!)

Howell and the Cocklebur Camp Texas group travel to the Cheyenne Frontier Days each year but missed it in 2020 due to Covid restrictions, and Mr. Brown is looking forward to attending it maybe next year. (more next week)

And I either read about or John filled me in about how the group worked with a funding project, called “Cowboys 4 Heroes,” at Fort Sam Houston and then maybe with “Wounded Warriors.” Some money is raised for specific groups and some for scholarships and assists combat veterans with challenging transitions (physical and mental adjustments) from active duty to civilian life.

Mr. and Mrs. Brown recently returned from Logan, New Mexico, and we will pick up there next week with the conclusion to the CHUCKWAGON series. And now I need to find some “six-shooter” to help keep me awake as I watch another installment of Law and Order before I go to bed!