It all started when I wrote a piece for Texas Now Magazine
about a great museum in Kingsville – King Ranch Museum.
I was in a hurry because of a deadline and I didn’t take the
time to check the pictures I’d chosen to run with the story. That coupled with not paying attention to details when
presented with the proof, got me in a whole lot of trouble.
You see, one of the pictures depicting an exhibit at the
museum was in fact, not even their museum!
But the real kicker came when the Running W, the brand of
King Ranch, was turned upside down on the finished product…right there on the page where everyone could view
it! Talk about embarrassed!! Caught red-handed for not
following through and taking the time to double-check
myself before letting it go to print! If only I had it to do
over again.
What is a “brand” and why is it so important? According to
Wikipedia, “A brand is a name, term, design or other feature
that distinguishes one seller’s product from those of others.”
Brands are used in business, marketing, advertising and cattle ranching. Initially, livestock branding was done to distinguish one person’s cattle from another’s by means of a symbol
burned into the animal’s skin with a hot branding iron.
The act of branding livestock with fire-heated marks to identify ownership dates back to the times of the ancient Egyptians. The Romans sometimes used brands as part of a magic
spell which protected the animals from harm.
The word “brand” itself is derived from the Germanic language which roughly translates to “burning, fire”. This originally indicated anything that was hot or burning, such as a
“firebrand” or a burning stick. By the middle Ages in Europe, it was
used commonly to refer
to the process of burning
a mark into stock animals
with thick hides, such as
cattle, to display or identify ownership. The practice
became particularly widespread in nations with large
cattle grazing regions, such
as Spain.
Imported to the Americas
the brand was refined by the
vaquero tradition in Texas and
northern Mexico. A “branding
iron” was made of an iron rod
with a simple symbol or mark,
which cowboys heated in a fire.
After the branding iron turned red
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