The Last Roundup: Memories of a Canadian Cowboy

W.J.C. Cherwinski is a professor of history at the Memorial University
of Newfoundland and the co-author of Lectures in Canadian Labour and
Working-Class History.

The Last Roundup recounts the final 350-mile drive undertaken, in 1921,
by the Scottish-owned, Texas-based Matador Land and Cattle Company, of
3500 cattle from its massive ranch in the Coteau Hills (north of Swift
Current, Saskatchewan) to its Montana holdings. The story is told by
Stan Graber, an eager young participant in that drive, who, despite the
passage of almost three-quarters of a century, demonstrates a remarkable
memory for detail (Graber even includes the recipes that were used to
make sourdough bread and pancakes). Nonetheless, much of the trivia is
probably wasted on all but the most elderly readers from the area, as
are many of the family-album photographs (of uneven quality). But some
of the pictures do capture the scale of this ranching venture and the
practices associated with its final drive.

For those unfamiliar with early ranching, a most useful part of the
book is the four-page glossary of terms Graber appends. Here one sees
that ranching was primarily a North American industry with long Spanish
roots, in which companies like the MLCC paid little attention to
international borders. For this reason alone, “the last roundup” was
an anomaly long past its time.