Running Irons

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THERE WERE MANY TYPES OF MARKS BY WHICH THE ranchers of the old west established ownership of their cattle, ranging from straightforward initial or number brands to John Chisum’s Long Rail, a line burned along the animal’s side from rump to shoulder.

A box brand had a square outline around letters or numbers; a connected brand meant that one of the letters in it touched the other; barbed brands carried a short projection from some part of them; a bench brand stood on a horizontal bracket with legs extending downward like a bench; a drag brand carried lines sticking downward from its bottom; should a brand have a small extension from each side it was said to be “flying”; a letter suspended from or connected to a quarter circle bore the title “swinging”; a tumbling brand meant that its letters leaned over at an oblique angle; a walking brand bore twin small extensions like feet at its lower extremities; a rafter brand sheltered under an inverted V-shape; a forked brand carried a small V-shaped prong on one of its sides; a running brand meant that flowing lines trailed from it; a bradded brand had a large termini; a collection of wings without a central figure bore the title “whangdoodle.” Hacienderos below the Rio Grande used such large and complicated brands that a man might read them by moonlight, but could make no sense of them. The Texas cowhands called such brands “maps of Mexico,” “skillets of snakes,” “greaser madhouses” and other less complimentary names.

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