{"id":778,"date":"2010-09-01T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T19:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.russbishop.com\/blog\/?p=778"},"modified":"2012-02-03T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T22:52:10","slug":"hawaiian-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/russbishop.com\/blog\/hawaiian-cowboys\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaiian Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Clouds<\/a><\/p>\n

Hawaiian cowboys? – it\u00a0sounds like a contradiction, but\u00a0then Hawaii is full of them. In addition to\u00a0its active volcano, pristine beaches, and\u00a0the world’s largest observatories on Mauna Kea, the\u00a0Big Island of Hawaii is also home to\u00a0one the largest and oldest ranches in the United States.<\/p>\n

After the war of 1812 John Parker\u00a0settled in\u00a0the Islands and became friends with King Kamehameha I.\u00a0He\u00a0married the daughter of a high-ranking chief and\u00a0was given two acres of land and allowed to\u00a0manage the free-roaming cattle on the island.\u00a0Over the next 160 years the ranch grew to thousands of acres around the town of Waimea and until 1992,\u00a0it was the largest privately owned cattle ranch in the United States\u00a0(including Texas and Montana!).<\/p>\n

The paniolos (or Hawaiian cowboys) who work the ranch\u00a0are descendants of Mexican vaqueros,\u00a0excellent horsemen\u00a0brought over by Parker to manage the growing operation. They trained local men to rope and ride a generation before the American cowboys\u00a0of the Wild West learned their craft,\u00a0and\u00a0introduced to the local culture the sound that\u00a0today is synonymous with\u00a0Hawaii, the\u00a0ukulele.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawaiian cowboys? – it\u00a0sounds like a contradiction, but\u00a0then Hawaii is full of them. In addition to\u00a0its active volcano, pristine beaches, and\u00a0the world’s largest observatories on Mauna Kea, the\u00a0Big Island of Hawaii is also home to\u00a0one the largest and oldest ranches in the United States. After the war of 1812 John Parker\u00a0settled in\u00a0the Islands and became … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hawaiian Cowboys”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpmdr_menu":1,"wpmdr_menu_extended":{"individualPostRemove":1,"individualPostRemoveDate":1,"individualPostRemoveAuthor":1,"individualPostYoastRemovePublished":1,"individualPostYoastRemoveModified":1},"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,20],"tags":[90,185,186,26,158,189,184,182,183,187,188],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-travel","tag-clouds","tag-cowboy","tag-fence","tag-hawaii","tag-island","tag-pacific","tag-paniolo","tag-parker-ranch","tag-the-big-island","tag-ukulele","tag-vaqueros"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t