Frontier musters assemble mixed crews of hosts, hunters, and celebrated riders

Evidence

After a 6:30 breakfast this morning, we started, the party being composed of my host, a hunter from the Snowy Range, two stockmen from the Plains, one of whom rode a violent buck-jumper, and was said by his comrade to be the “best rider in North Americay,” and myself. We were all mounted on Mexican saddles, rode, as the custom is, with light snaffle bridles, leather guards over our feet, and broad wooden stirrups, and each carried his lunch in a pouch slung on the lassoing horn of his saddle. Four big, badly-trained dogs accompanied us. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 146

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A vivid ensemble — the celebrated buck-jumper rider, the Snowy Range hunter, four badly-trained dogs — is a ready-made cast and scene opener for a frontier story.
• FICTION: The detail of lunch carried in a pouch on the lassoing horn is exactly the kind of tactile small prop that grounds an invented western scene.
• XREF: connects to: Frontier cabins housed a motley mix of invalids, prospectors, and aristocrats — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 289

Broader Connections

• Frontier cabins housed a motley mix of invalids, prospectors, and aristocrats #expands (1.00) — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 289