# Is there any truth to the "cow skull lying in the desert" trope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586 "2021-10-31T22:30:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/1 "2021-10-31T22:30:05Z")
We’ve all seen it. The image of a desert or “badlands”-type landscape in the American Southwest or other Wild West or pioneer-related location. Among the cacti, sand, dry soil, etc. one or more cow (or perhaps buffalo) skulls, and more rarely, complete skeletons, are lying on the ground as a reminder of how barren this area is. This image is often seen in comics/caricatures/cartoons. But how much of a basis in reality does it have? Was it really more common to see the skulls or skeletons of cows (that had presumably escaped from ranches or hadn’t survived a cattle drive) or of buffalos in the deserts/on the plains in the time of the Old West than it is to see the bones of other animals elsewhere, or is this just a stereotype that was created by the media? What I do know is that (horridly), in the 1870s or thereabout, a staggering number of buffalo were killed by order of the US government, in order to make Native Americans, to whom the beasts were a source of food/materials, more dependent on the government. I don’t know if something similar wasn’t done in Canada, but I’ve seen old photos, I think from both countries, of enormous piles of buffalo bones; I may have read in a history textbook in school that these bones were then turned into fertilizer (though again, I don’t remember if the bones of the buffalo from the Canadian image from my textbook were killed deliberately - which is likely given their sheer number - or were found dead on the plains). Could these macabre images that largely or wholly resulted from human-driven killings have inspired the trope of the skull of a bovine that had died naturally lying in the desert or a similar environment in the Wild West? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/2 "2021-10-31T22:48:46Z")
Maybe on the plains, but not in the desert. Bison don’t live in the desert, while cows live wherever people take them. That’s the point: a dead cow implies that things aren’t going great for its owners. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/3 "2021-10-31T22:57:16Z")
So the skull means “Hey, someone else had the bright idea of living here before you did. Guess how that worked out for him?” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/4 "2021-10-31T23:34:39Z")
The desert is a handy place for ETs to leave the remains after abducting a cow. Their moms never taught them to put things back where they found them. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/5 "2021-10-31T23:57:54Z")
Maybe this how some of them originated. > [@Beef from the wild west compared to today](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beef-from-the-wild-west-compared-to-today/952844): > > Is it possible to estimate how the quality of beef from the mid 1800s was compared to today’s beef? The cattle (longhorn?) were range fed but I’m picturing sparse prairie grass, not lush green pastures. Then they walked 50 to 100 miles to market on cattle drives. Did they know to fatten them on corn before slaughter? Did they even have large quantities of corn back then? I think the many cuts of beef were well known by that time but was a porterhouse from 1875 as nicely marbled as a present da… ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/6 "2021-11-01T00:03:39Z")
It happened often in my old job. I’d be roaming around the wide expanse of the mud flats of the Great Salt Lake on an ATV for work, and we’d come across a few. I didn’t stop to ID whether it was cow, horse, ox, etc (not that I was ever an expert in veterinary forensics). My teams did come across human remains once. That got a call to Range Control with coordinates. Tripler Lots of things died in the mud flats. _Lots._ ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/8 "2021-11-01T04:13:02Z")
I thought the “cow skull in the desert” was a sign the water was not drinkable. Too alkaline or something. The cows would drink it anyway for lack of an alternative and then die from it. > [@themapleleaf](#): > > . I don’t know if something similar wasn’t done in Canada, but I’ve seen old photos, I think from both countries, of enormous piles of buffalo bones; Could the pile of buffalo bones have been from this place? > **[Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site](https://headsmashedin.ca)** > > Where the foothills of the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains sits one of the world’s largest, oldest, and best-preserved buffalo jumps. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/9 "2021-11-01T04:44:32Z")
Another source of this trope could be the stories we’ve all seen about pioneers traveling West through the plains via covered Conestoga wagon-trains. The picture here is from a modern-day re-enactment: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/WagonTrn.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/WagonTrn.jpg) These wagons were typically pulled by oxen, which are hardier and more drought-resistant than horses. But they didn’t all survive the trek to California or wherever they were headed. So there would be oxen skeletons along the established wagon trails. > **[Wagon train](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_train)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. Before the extensive use of military vehicles, baggage trains followed an army with supplies and ammunition. > In the American West, settlers traveling across the plains and mountain passes in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance. Although wagon trains are associated with the Old West, the Trekboers of South Africa also traveled in caravans of covered wagons. > Wagon trains follo... (ETA: The people didn’t all survive the trip either, but you don’t see their skeletons laying by the side of the trail. Those tended to get buried.) ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/10 "2021-11-01T05:06:34Z")
Huge (maybe huge doesn’t quite cover it) pile of buffalo skulls… [![](https://media.snopes.com/2016/02/buffalo_skulls.jpg) ](https://media.snopes.com/2016/02/buffalo_skulls.jpg) Snopes article… > **[Photo: Man Standing on Large Pile of Bison Skulls](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pile-bison-bones-photo/)** > > A photo that purportedly shows a man standing on top of a large pile of bison skulls is real. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/11 "2021-11-01T05:55:08Z")
Drive around enough out here and you are bound to see a “cow skull” or two lying around. Stores sell them as “western” decorations and some people put them in their yard, along with half buried wagon wheels. So if it was originally a fictional trope it has become a self-fulfilling reality. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/12 "2021-11-01T06:47:22Z")
On a tangentially related note, I grew up in the country, and frequently when trudging across farmland would stumble upon a random skull of an animal, be it sheep, horse, or cow. Not in an offal pit, but just left where it had perished, often under trees where the tractor wouldn’t reach. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/13 "2021-11-01T07:00:10Z")
Another chiming in to say yes, you find random dead cattle skulls/skeletons/etc in the dry, dusty prairies even nowadays. If a cow dies on the cattle ranches up 'round here, it generally just decomposes where it lies (unless it needs to be dragged out of the road or something). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/14 "2021-11-01T07:15:24Z")
I’ve seen tons of cow skulls/skeletons in the desert. And plenty live cattle, they’re free-grazed. “Desert” in this context means an arid area, not sand and cacti. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/15 "2021-11-01T14:19:47Z")
Western Pennsylvania is hardly the desert, but we do find deer skulls in the woods from time to time. As the carcass decomposes, chunks of meat from the fore and hind quarters are dragged off by scavengers, leaving the skull alone at some point. A few years ago, our dog Loki returned from a brief walk in the woods with a fawn forelimb. I took her trophy away from here, but fifteen minutes later she had it again. When I took it away and put it in the barn garbage can I realized it was a second trophy. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/16 "2021-11-01T14:25:28Z")
Yeah, a ton of the western US is desert, and cattle is a major agricultural industry in those areas. Here’s [map of BLM grazing land](https://westernwatersheds.org/2020/03/conservation-groups-draft-submit-grazing-regulation-package-to-reform-livestock-mismanagement/2019-blm-grazing-allotment-map/). Much of that land is desert or close to it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/17 "2021-11-01T17:36:50Z")
My dog found the pile where deer hunters put the viscera and unwanted parts. He brought a head home, “Hey, this guy is really bad off. You need to do something!” ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/18 "2021-11-01T17:59:16Z")
People make decorations for their homes with those cattle skulls, so it must be true! Another trope similar to the cattle skull thing is the whole saguaro cactus thing for any dryland. They only naturally grow in one area of the northern Sonoran desert in AZ and parts of CA. Like this brand-name (saguaro do not naturally grow within a few hundred miles of El Paso): [![](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1095968/OEP_Logo.jpg?p=publish) ](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1095968/OEP_Logo.jpg?p=publish) ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/19 "2021-11-01T20:23:36Z")
Seems pretty legit to me. I have often seen cattle skulls around southern Alberta rangelands. Much of this is pretty dry land but not quite semi arid even (despite what many Calgarians seem to think, the climate is humid continental). Definitely see Akali pools, can’t remember if I have seen skulls beside them. Lots of bones bother recent and fossils, in the badlands. As far as the pictures of bison bone piles, I am pretty sure those have a lot more to do with the big hunts during settlement of the west than traditional hunts at the Buffalo jump. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/20 "2021-11-01T20:45:34Z")
I saw three deer skulls today while cruising timber. I’ve found moose, cattle, elk, bear, wolf, coyote and many others. Unless it’s exceptionally cool/interesting I don’t stop for more than a second. Today, one of the deer skulls was from a young buck and had tiny little spikes. I pulled them apart and the skull broke where it fuses. It was interesting to me, seeing how the plates fused together and how the buck was growing a set of antlers while the fuse wasn’t 100% complete. I would say that bones would last a lot longer in arid areas. The supply would be smaller but the staying power would be decades. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2021, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586/21 "2021-11-02T22:23:48Z")
I used to live in Taos. I’ve found quite a few cow skulls in the high desert. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-truth-to-the-cow-skull-lying-in-the-desert-trope/953586.md?page=2)