U.S. Independence Day (July 4)

U.S. Independence Day (July 4) is both a festive pause and a labor-season threshold in the ranch calendar. At the Burbank Ranch, Phil Burbank treats the holiday as the marker for haying: he sets the start date as soon as possible after the Fourth, which he calls the Glorious Fourth. For the migrant workers gathering in Herndon, the same day offers a last fling before they hire out for the season.

The ranch calendar

The holiday divides preparation from production. Phil oversees haying operations, inspects machinery and equipment, directs the diversion of creek water for early-summer irrigation, and watches the hay’s growth. His schedule makes the Fourth a practical boundary: celebration gives way to the work of cutting and gathering the crop, and the season is meant to begin promptly afterward.

That seasonal shift requires extensive organization. The ranch has eight mowing machines—four John Deeres and four McCormack-Deerings—as well as six buck rakes, six sulky rakes, and two derricks. Phil also checks the cookshack, dining shack, and twelve large canvas tents used as the crews move from camp to camp. The holiday therefore sits at the entrance to a planned operation, not an interruption in an otherwise unstructured year.

A last fling for migrant workers

In Herndon, migrant workers gather outside the pool halls on the Fourth before hiring on as hay hands for ranches spread through the surrounding country. The celebration compresses several pleasures into one last day: flags in the streets, the brass of the Herndon Municipal Band on the lawn beside the railroad station, a rodeo at the fairgrounds, hot dogs, fireworks, bonfires, and the possibility of drinking and going upstairs with a woman. Afterward, workers travel to ranches by stage, by hitching rides, or on foot from Beech, where some leave a freight train.

The festivities are framed by the ninety days of haying ahead. Some celebrants are arrested as vagrants, and the account notes that they may spend a night or two in the courthouse cells before coming to the ranches. Their arrival after the holiday is described as pale, quiet, and contrite. The contrast between the noisy public celebration and the subdued beginning of hired work gives the Fourth a double character: it is a release before labor, but also a countdown to it.

The work that follows

Haying brings physical risk as well as routine. The mowing machines’ seven-foot cutter bars are dangerous when lowered to skim the ground; accidents in the valley can leave workers seriously hurt. The men who drive the machines handle difficult horses and, after work, remove and sharpen the bars. Their specialized, hazardous work earns them extra pay and a degree of deference: they have the newest tents, are listened to, and choose the best steaks first.

The holiday’s place in the narrative is thus measured against the labor that follows it. The town’s bands, rodeo, and fireworks belong to a short reprieve, while the ranch calendar, equipment, camps, and dangerous machinery define the long season ahead. Phil’s name for the date lends it celebratory grandeur, but his timetable also turns it into a deadline.