Pierre Was A Cowtown / Reading Brands

Pierre Was A Cowtown, also, Reading Brands. . , Pierre Was a Cowtown (marker side 1) , Yes sir, Mister, Pierre was a cowtown. Why they built the sidewalks two feet off the ground to keep the cows from spattering ‘em up. The stockyards ran longside the river for half a mile and three ferries were busy night and day in the shippin’ season fetching cows over from the holding grounds, where cattle from as far away as Montana were funneled into the railhead at Pierre. , Yes sir, Pierre had 14 saloons in which cowpokes could wet a whistle and it was cows that kept Pierre awake with their endless bawlin’ enroute east. Why one year more cows clumb aboard the cars here than ever happened elsewhere anywhere. Yep sonny, put it down, Pierre was a cowtown. West river ranchers wintered here and the brand books of 1901 and prior listed 75 brand owners with over 200 brands. A few of them were: , Ben C. Ash with his C Cross “C+”. Joe Binder and his Tumbling Box L. Steven Bowen and Circle 8. Billy Borst who ran the TJ Connected J and many others. James Cox with his Reverse FL Connected. Mike Feeney ran the VIA. Mel John Holland had the Cross Lazy H. Frank Huss 8 equals 8, “8=8”. Hyde and Rose HR Connected. Ledger LaBrecque and the Nine RZ “9RZ”. George W. Lumley, L Slash Y, “L/Y”. T. M. Madsen, JV. , Raymond Herbert, first brand in Hughes County, a twenty-four connected like this. March Brothers M Cross M, “M+M”. Bill Hayes had the JR Bar, “JR-“. Noah Newbanks, WT Bar “WT”. T. L. Riggs, I Bar R, “I-R”. Frank Rood, Bar over 91. John Tibbs, U up and U down. A. Rosander had a Flower Pot. , Yep, she was a dandy. The good grass is still here and maybe more cattle but a heap less jangling spurs and tootin’ whistles. , Reading Brands (marker side 2) , Two old cowpokes reading twenty brands wont agree on all of them but general speaking this is how to read a brand. , A letter like this is a reverse F. But this is a tumbling F. A letter lying on its side is lazy. If its angles are round it’s a running while if it has little wings on it like this its flying. Put legs on it like this and its walking. Or if attached to a quarter circle on the bottom it’s rocking. Sometimes a letter swings from a character. This is a box and this is not a half box, it’s a bench. Short horizontals are bars everywhere but long horizontals are sometimes called rails. Diamonds and triangles never change nor do circles nor crescents nor stars. This “+” is always a cross although once in a while a brand reader will call it a plus. This is a rafter and this “/” a slash and this a quarter circle. When you connect two letters or symbols you say so. Thus this brand you would read as a reverse FAK connected. There are all sorts of individual characters like the millirons, anvil and arrow. A rafter connected with other letters is usually called an “open A” like this open AB connected. , The calls for a lot of actual workaday brands are to be found on the other side of this marker. , Erected 1956 by Pat Feeney, Pierre and State Highway Commission.