Mules, Mules, Mules: The unsung hero of American West

Rough country: “Hell on women and horses, just right for men and mules.” An unsung hero of exploration and settlement of the American West is the durable mule – bred for hard work and labor. The strong, long-eared cross-breed comes from mating a female horse to a male donkey. The offspring inherits the best characteristics of both parents, a genetic phenomenon called “hybrid vigor.” A mule lives longer, works harder and eats less than its mare mother; and is faster, more cooperative and smarter than its jack father.

The mare may be any breed, usually mated to a jack of appropriate size. The horse’s breed designates the mule’s breed. For example, a Belgian mule has a Belgian mare for its dam, likewise the Quarter Horse mule, Appaloosa mule, Tennessee Walker mule and so on.

The mule’s size and color depends upon the breed of its mother. The long-eared equine weighs an average 800 to 1,000 pounds carries up to 200 pounds in “dead weight.” Mules range in size from huge draft mules to fine-boned racing mules to pint-sized ponies. All male mules and nearly all female mules are infertile.

George Washington introduced mules to the U.S. when he received two Catalan donkeys from the king of Spain. The hybrid labored throughout agricultural America – plowing, hauling water, harvesting, wagonning produce from farm to market. Mules also functioned as an important source of transportation.

Mules came into the Rocky Mountain West serving the earliest exploration parties, carrying food, supplies, tents, camping gear, clothing, ammunition, scientific equipment and much more. A vivid example is John C. Fremont’s expedition into the San Juan Mountains the winter of 1848-1849, which ended in tragedy with all of the company’s 120 mules and 11 of the 33 men perishing in blizzard conditions near the upper Rio Grande River.

The sure-footed animals became essential in exploration and settlement. On the Western frontier, the U.S. Army relied heavily upon mules for freight and transportation, setting up and supplying outlying military forts. Trappers and traders and adventurer-explorers penetrated the unclaimed wilderness straddling a horse and trailing a mule that carried supplies, or a heavy load of venison when a hunting party was successful.

In the 1870s, several different survey parties swarmed throughout the last of the unmapped Rocky Mountains, their efforts aided by mules that packed the food, supplies and gear. Prolific railroad photographer William Henry Jackson first accompanied survey parties into the Colorado mountains, his heavy photography equipment strapped to the back of a mule.

Before the railroad arrived, the hybrid beast of burden became essential in moving materials and mercantile goods. Mule teams hauled supply wagons across the eastern plains into the tent towns popping up at the foot of the Front Range, as the raw territory gained its first semblance of civilization. They pulled heaving wagons and stagecoaches up steep canyon roads to mining camps, and mammoth ore wagons down to processing mills and smelters. Long strings – mules by the dozens – carried lumber, timber, cable and other materials for developing hardrock mines in hard-to-reach places. Meanwhile, underground, mules pulled carts filled with coal or ore laced with silver and gold.

In southwestern Colorado, Otto Mears and Dave Woods ran the two largest freighting outfits. Mears built the toll roads into silver mining camps like Lake City and Ouray, then ran his mule-drawn freight wagons over these routes. Dave Woods operated out of Montrose, hauling thousands of tons of freight into Ouray and Silverton, later remembered as the man who “hauled them mountains in there.” Muleskinners also provided local color, stalking the streets of wild mining camps as the fiercest, most foul-mouthed workers, rivaled only by the bullwhacker, in getting a dozen harnessed animals in forward motion and cooperating.

There were few places the mule could not go. Sure-footed saddle mules carried travelers, tourists and hunters up and down mountain trails. Well into the 1900s, the ever-present mule helped plant crops, harvest wheat, cultivate sugar beets and quarry stone.

Not until the 1940s did the mule fade from the scene, replaced by the tractor, the Jeep and the truck. Even then, mules were used during World War II training at Camp Hale near Leadville. In 1957, the Army decommissioned its mule units at Fort Carson, the last American fort to maintain Army mules. Several members of the Al Kaly Shrine were Army Reserve members and decided to launch a new Shrine Mounted Patrol named the Al Kaly Shrine Mule Train. They paid $25 apiece for 28 decommissioned mules.

The Mule Train paraded in the Central States Shrine Association Convention in St. Louis, Mo., the following year, and in President Kennedy’s Inauguration. In 1973, the Al Kaly Mule Train members acquired 5 acres south of Colorado Springs alongside I-25, formerly a dairy farm with a barn, silo and outbuildings.

Mules are still a Colorado presence. The Colorado Mule Riders Association, formed in 1977, helps maintain the Al Kaly Mule Train facility and sponsors an annual trail ride. Mules step into the spotlight every January at the Denver Western Stock Show, performing feats of strength during the Draft Horse and Mule demonstration, showing off their power and prowess in Heavyweight Pull competitions. In some remote areas of Colorado, mules still transport cargo into rugged roadless regions. Commercial pack mules serve recreation, including as hunting trips or supplying mountaineering base camps.

“Mule ownership is growing,” observes Alamosa rancher Bill Goetz, who owns a dozen mules. “You didn’t used to see too many around, but now there are mules in lots of different pastures in the valley and up the Rio Grande River. Probably every county in Colorado has somebody who’s breeding his mare to mules.”

For example, mules provide essential power for the Amish farmers cultivating land in the San Luis Valley without modern conveniences.

“With a mule, you can do almost everything than you can on a horse,” says Goetz. “You don’t see too many cowboys riding a mule, because you can’t rope off them. You won’t see a mule in the National Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association. But I have mules that out walk horses. People appreciate the difference between a mule and a horse, and have fun with them.”