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| The living-history 2026 Great Florida Cattle Drive continued rain or shine. (Photo credit: USA Today 'The Florida Pulse' documentary video.) |
I often say pioneer Florida resembled the Wild West. Actually, the Wild West copied frontier Florida in a major way: cattle drives.
Florida cowmen and cow-women have been conducting cattle drives across the state for hundreds of years. The Spanish introduced what's called cracker cattle to the state in the early 1500s. Cattle drives in Texas and states farther West were latecomers. Yet, much historical lore plants such events firmly - and only - in those areas.
Wrong. Florida was a leading cattle-producing state by the mid-1800s, according to a University of Florida blog about the industry's history. We still rank among the top cattle-producing states in the nation.
Florida cattle drives of the past are no more, with one major exception: The Great Florida Cattle Drive. It's a living-history journey like no other. Using tools of the trade like those of 200 years ago, volunteers drive cattle across the state just as they did during the pioneer era.
Organized by the all-volunteer Florida Cow Culture Preservation Committee, the reenactment takes place about once every five years. Florida's ongoing rapid development has hindered and altered the path of the trail, but the event's power and intent remain the same. The Great Florida Cattle Drive website says:
"This reenactment honors the state’s ranching heritage and educates attendees about the challenges and triumphs faced by early Florida cow hunters."
This year's seven-day drive covered 45 miles across 15 historic ranch lands in Okeechobee County. That's in the south central part of the state, which has a landscape that's alien to new coastal dwellers.
Cattle were driven as a herd, with cowmen and -women, horses and dogs making sure the cattle didn't wander into swamps, hammocks or sloughs. It was hard, hot, gritty work. It comes as close as a modern event can to what pioneers experienced so long ago.
Maybe closer. I like to think that participants, come nighttime - seated around a campfire under a starry sky, relaxed after hours of intense outdoor labor, and surrounded by expanses of open land - made the leap between then and now. For a few minutes, maybe, minds and hearts stretched across time and touched.
