Cowboy bedroll

The cowboy bedroll was an American Old West precursor to the modern sleeping bag, which carried a man's bed and some personal belongings in a waterproof shell.

[citation needed] The bedroll is not prefigured in the history of the Midwestern United States, where several of the older states, notably Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, were noted c. 1830-65 as breeding and finishing grounds for great numbers of cattle, and from which these cattle were routinely "walked" to markets as far east as New York City, until the wholesale introduction of farming machinery in the postbellum era caused an economic shift toward grain culture, primarily wheat and corn.

[citation needed] Photographs exist of it, notably one in Albert Marrin's Cowboys, Indians, and Gunfighters, but they tend not to be specifically dated.

Louis L'Amour, who took some pride in the authenticity of his backgrounds, suggested in The Cherokee Trail (set c. 1863) that the roll may have existed as early as the Civil War, as he has a character say he'll "just throw my bed under that tree."

It may have developed from the elementary bedding used by the mountain man, who generally used only a Mackinaw blanket and a buffalo robe or bearskin, cured with the hair on.

[1] He secured it by means of a pair of leather straps with buckles, or with a couple of lengths of clothesline or worn-out lariat which he tied around it near the two ends, and a third piece of rope running from one of these to the other to form a handle.

In rainy, snowy, windy, and/or sleety weather, he pulled up the canvas flaps of his roll and remained snug and warm (the waterproof tarpaulin underneath him kept ground moisture from seeping in).

Some men also carried a 3-ft. canvas triangle with a grommet at each corner and another centering each edge; this could be rigged in half-a dozen ways as a windbreak or rain-roof, or rolled and shoved under the sougans for a pillow.

The war bag seems to have been used primarily as a pillow and for clothing (which provided the stuffing), and it is likely that the cowboy rolled each item up in a tight cylinder, as the modern backpacker does, to save space.

This would come to a total of about 23–26 lb., or as much as 33 if "good" clothing was present, plus the bedding itself, which ran roughly 30–44, not counting anything else he might have tucked away in the bag (ranging from extra tobacco to books to personal papers to odd small collectibles, jewelry, etc., which was why it was considered unhealthy to be caught prowling through another man's bedroll).