In this image we have the typical American cowboys on the plains of Texas, their horses grazing in the back-ground. The photographer labeled this ‘A mumble-peg game’ — though mumble peg is usually played standing. It is a knife-throwing game, and there are many variants. A former owner of this photograph, Amon Carter, wrote a helpful inscription on the back giving details: Some Turkey Track cowboys taking a few moments rest: Jess Bomar lying, Charley Thompson sitting far left, and Fred “Kid” Bomar sitting far right, Turkey Track Ranch, Texas, 1906.

The photographer for this image was Erwin Evans Smith (1886–1947), who was living in Bonham Texas when not attending art school in Chicago or Boston. During the summers he worked on ranches as a cow-hand, and documented the cowboy way of life. Since he was ‘one of the gang’ his images have an un-staged honesty and informality that is lacking in more formal portraits of cowboys made self-conscious by the intruding photographer.