I guess “popular image” is an overstatement but it has gotten a few views and a couple of little awards on Flickr.com.

These three men are true cowboys born and raised working cattle in North Florida. Yeah, that’s right, Cowboys in north Florida; Apalachicola area, Keaton Beach to be precise. They’re 3rd generation Florida Crackers.

Crackers were the original settlers in the north Florida area and were called such because of the cracking of the whip they used to drive the cows through the marsh lands and cedar swamps.

As a child I remember going “Cow Huntin” on our land. We had to do that because we didn’t really fence much of the land and the cows were free to roam the 2000+ acres. That meant that every season the heifers were having calves we’d had to mark them so we’d know who’s calves were whose.

This is a picture of my family as I remember it.