They Call Me Old Blue: Or How I Helped Charles Goodnight Invent the Chuck Wagon

During the great cattle-drive era of the late 1800s, Old Blue became the most trusted longhorn lead steer in the herds of pioneering Texas rancher Charles Goodnight. When thousands of cattle thundered north toward railheads and growing towns, it was Blue's calm instincts-and not the cowboys' feeble efforts-that kept the drives moving safely over prairies, across rivers, through storms, and away from hungry predators.

Yet through the decades, Blue's remarkable story faded into myth. Cowboys c...