The Cowboy Way

Long before Texas cowboys were herding cattle, kicking up prairie dust, and riding into the sunset, their forebearers had been trotting across the Sunshine State’s expansive grasslands and swamp-speckled territory for centuries. Florida, as history would write, actually spawned our country’s very first cowboys.

When Juan Ponce de León arrived in Florida in 1521, he brought the first horses and Andalusian cattle with him to the United States. When Calusa Indians attacked, the Spanish explorer escaped, leaving the animals behind. Subsequent explorers would bring with them more livestock and, by the late-seventeenth century, Florida counted more than 30 ranches with cattle and horses totaling in the tens of thousands.

According to research from University of South Florida’s College of Education, by the 1800s, the Seminole Nation possessed great cattle herds. Searching for more grazing land nudged American Indians and white settlers south to areas like Alachua County and Lake Okeechobee. As an open state where steer roamed freely, Florida saw a prevalence of cattle rustling after the Civil War. Early cowboys would hunt and round up loose oxen using herding dogs and long bullwhips. It was the cracking sound their whips made that actually earned them the nickname “cracker.”

During steamy summer months, cracker cowboys congregated near Fort Pierce and drove scrub cattle across the state to western port towns to be shipped to Cuba and Key West. The 120-mile path they followed came to be known as the Florida Cracker Trail. Today, the Florida Cracker Trail Association reenacts the annual Florida Cracker Trail Ride every February. The nine-day sojourn kicks off in Bradenton, crosses five counties, then culminates with a horse parade through downtown Fort Pierce. Participants ride their own horses and make pit stops at popular attractions like Henscratch Farms in Lake Placid, whose free-range chickens lay green eggs.