MOJAVE MULESKINNERS

The Teamster, Freighter, Driver, Muleskinner, the weathered leather faced character found perched atop heavy wagons gripping leather lines in hands used to cold and heat and hard service. A man who knew outlaws, merchants, maritimers, ranchers, homesteaders, gamblers, cooks, engineers, Indians, surveyors, drunks, madams, miners, murderers, Marshals and little children by their first names.

 

A man who, with his swamper, brought every needed item to every mortal from the sea ports to the far reaches of the vast Mojave Desert and beyond. He touched every single item used by the men and women of the American Frontier regardless of their location. He sat atop his heavy wagon and met with dispatch the approach of every imaginable temperament exhibited by man, woman, child and beast. He met them with his shotgun, pistol, whip, whisky, wine, knife, Bible or toy. He was acquainted with every back entrance in any settlement he worked. He slept in soft beds, on floors, under trees, beneath his wagon, and in all weather submitted by nature. He was sometimes a family man working out of a supply town, sometimes alone and living on his own, often a man of unknown origin, but always a man who was clever enough to walk among the best and worst in his endeavors.

History has praised the cowboy, the soldier, sailor, doctors, lawyers, priests, miners, madam's, ministers, architects, and many more, but there is little or no mention of this cunning character who wandered the west. Yet, he touched them all........ literally.

 

He was a man who often brought in bodies he found along his road. waifs and wayfarers half starved. he fed many a hungry dog and brought in a kitten left along the way. He was kind, shrewd, and quick with a gun or word. He later, after his career or need slowly faded, came to be known as a Muleskinner. But he wasn't really. This derogatory term was actually used to identify cruel teamsters who abused their animals with whips. But the name stuck. So today, we sometimes refer to them as Muleskinners. So be it! But in truth, no man of value would abuse the animals upon which his life and the lives of many others depended. For no man of character can drive such animals day after day and not come to respect and maybe even love them. And I'd like to think that the Muleskinner laid a gentle hand upon the head of a lot of children along the way as he maybe offered them a little something from his payload. For in reality, their heroes were always Muleskinners. Otherwise, they wouldn't stand beside the trails to wave when they heard the jingle of his trace chains.

 

 

~ Weakeyes Cody