If you know where to look, there are pockets in West Texas where visions of the old west

still appear from time to time, like mirages in the heat.

I caught a glimpse one Saturday morning last December.

Perched a top of pipe fence at the bullhead ranch, some 40 miles northwest of Odessa,

I was scanning the horizon when a white-faced herfered cow stepped through a thick

tangle of mesquite.

I don't see the cowboys.

She was followed by her calf.

Seconds later, a herd of rust-colored cattle burst through the brush and came streaming toward

me, guiding the cattle where a dozen cowboys.

Most of them were chaps and wide-brimmed hats, all were on horseback.

The cowboys yipped and hollered as they pushed the herd.

The hooves of the animals turned up the gust and sent pale clouds, streaming into the

wide, empty sky.

I was staring at a version of West Texas that existed long before oil changed everything.

I'm Christian Wallace and this is Boomtown, a podcast about the historical boom playing

out right now in the Permian Basin.

A half century before the first oil rigged, punched holes across West Texas, scenes like

the one you just heard were common.

Ranching was the area's primary industry.

In this episode, we'll meet cowboys and cowgirls who still work their ranches on horseback.

Rural West Texans fighting to maintain their land in way of life, while their ability

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