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Letter FROM the Editor: Letter from the Managing Editor
January 16th, 2013

Arts and Entertainment: Fiber Artist Classes at Cedar Key Arts Center
January 5th, 2013

Fishing News: A Warm Winter Day
December 31st, 2012

Arts and Entertainment: ACOUSTICAL AFTERNOON FOR THE ARTS FUNDRAISER FOR THE CEDAR KEY ARTS FESTIVAL
December 31st, 2012

Garden Club News: Cedar Key Garden Club is sponsoring a guest speaker at the CK Library
December 30th, 2012

Arts and Entertainment: Cedar Key Arts Center - January Events
December 25th, 2012

Announcements: Eagle Santa
December 25th, 2012

Announcements: Cedar Key "Pirates" will Host Returning Troops
December 23rd, 2012

Obituaries: Marie Yearty Johnson
December 22nd, 2012

Obituaries: Ayleen Marie Rains
December 22nd, 2012

Arts and Entertainment: CEDAR KEY ART FESTIVAL DEADLINE EXTENDED
December 21st, 2012

Garden Club News: CK Garden Club Jack Tyson Memorial Planter
December 21st, 2012

Columns: Trouble in Cedar Key - Personal Mission Statements, New Years Resolutions
December 21st, 2012

Announcements: Volunteers Deck the Halls of the Lighthouse
December 20th, 2012

City News: December 18, 2012, COMMISSION MEETING
December 20th, 2012

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North Florida – Wild Florida: The Cattle Drive

North Florida – Wild Florida: The Cattle Drive

Hedy Havel

I wouldn`t have missed it for the world. It was the stuff of childhood dreams...


As a young girl, I often helped my grandparents, on their farm in the Piedmont, bring in the cows for milking in the evening. It was a pleasant activity without much stress since the cows knew when they saw us that they needed to head for the barn for their feed and relief. They would start walking right away and we walked behind them and followed them to the barn.


I often imagined how it would be if I were on a horse, riding, not walking, behind those cows.


Years later, there we were, the family in the car heading down 345 for Cedar Key, when we came around the bend and found ourselves in the midst of a bonafide cattle drive!

The cows were being moved from a pasture east of the road to another pasture several miles away that was west of the road. We happened upon it by chance and what a thrill it was! The cows - black, brown , spotted, some with horns, some without - were moseying along, driven by cowboys dressed to the nines - hats, chaps, spurs, lariats coiled by their sides, and bedrolls behind their saddles. They had scarves around their necks and whips ready at hand. They were Cracker cowboys, after all.


Cow dogs and cur dogs loped along the shoulders, worrying the cows who stopped for lunch. The calves were confused and protesting but the cowboys moved everyone along with whistles and the crack of their whips. The dogs ran in to help. The cows were liberally fertilizing the way south and taking it easy. The older ones knew that they were being moved to greener pastures and did not balk.


We drove very slowly through the melee, windows down to take in the sounds and sights and odors, honking at the cows who blocked the road, and glorying in being able to be on the fringe of history. We knew it was pretty much a thing of the past already.
And it was.

We caught parts of a few more cattle drives in the following years. Sometimes we drove down a manure slick road and knew that we had missed the actual happening. And then, in the late 90`s, the cows disappeared, the land was sold off in 40 acre parcels, and we knew that we would never be even a minor part of the 345 cattle drive again.
But once we were.

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