Cracker Cowboys

An artists depiction of a Cracker Cowboy cattle run in Florida

 This week in class, we were to listen to a podcast on the cattle barons of Florida, aka the Cracker Cowboys. The Cracker Cowboys were a people in Florida who would go and wrangle the wild cattle in Florida to sell. They were often sold to places close to Florida, such as Georgia, Alabama and some other southern states. However, this changed when the Cubans started to rebel against Spain. This rebellion created a "gold rush" for the Cracker Cowboys. This is because they were paid in gold doubloons for their cattle, and they were paid a lot for their cattle. Evidence for this is when it was stated in the Cracker Cowboys podcast that, "The gold doubloons that enriched many men and became the currency of their region in Florida in this time period... Those gold doubloons actually came from Spanish Cuba which at the time was importing tens of thousands of cattle from Florida" (Killmer, n.d, 1:30-2:00). This made a boomtown in the port of Punta Rassa, where the Cowboys meetup to sell cattle, spend money and have a good time. 

The Cracker Cattle is still a thriving species of
cattle in Florida today.

The funny thing about the Cowboys selling the Cracker Cattle to Cuba, is the fact that the cattle, were derived from a species of cattle that the Spanish brought hundreds of years prior. Then through some way or another, the cows got out of the farms they were held in and became feral and a natural part of Florida biodiversity. However, these cattle were resilient and were able to survive in Florida for a reason. They were a pain to catch and herd together. Only the most determined and well prepared people could go out and wrangle up a Cracker Cattle. The prepared Cracker Cowboy needed to have an arsenal of tools at his disposal if he were to properly get the cattle into a manageable group. These tools included, a horse, a whip, and a dog. In fact, the Cracker Cowboys created their own breed of dog to help with the wrangling of Cattle. This dog breed is called the Cracker Curr. 

A Florida/Cracker Curr

The Cracker Curr is a breed of dog that was specifically bred for the rounding up and herding of cattle in Florida. They are intelligent dogs that have a natural instinct for herding cattle, they are also very obedient and are able to defend cattle. 

When it came to the Cracker Cowboys, there was one man who was the king of them all. This man was named Jake Summerlin. He was a second generation Cracker Cowboy and a great opportunist. He was one of the first cowboys to sell to Cuba, he sold cattle to the Confederacy and he sold cattle to the Union. Jake was one of the richest Cracker Cowboys and one of the richest men in Florida. 

I chose the Cracker Cowboys as my topic to discuss for the week because I feel as if they make the history of Florida more rich and vibrant. Before this week I had no idea Florida had their own cowboys, finding this information out was a bombshell. I thought it was really cool and finding out that they were like Wild West cowboys adapted for Florida life was mind-blowing. Also, finding out that they created their own dog breed for their cattle runs changed my whole perspective on Florida history.