Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition

Exploring and celebrating the history and culture of the nation’s oldest cattle ranching state, folklorist Bob Stone, shares all aspects of cattle ranching traditions — cracker cow whips, unique ranch gate designs, swamp cabbage, cowboy church, and cowboy funerals. About the Author: Bob Stone is an independent folklorist and media-producer based in Gainesville. In 2011, the Florida Department of State honored him with the Florida Folk Heritage Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements as a lifelong advocate of the folk arts and folk artists of Florida. He conducted extensive field documentation and served as co-curator for the large traveling exhibition Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition, which has been viewed by more than 600,000 visitors from Florida to Nevada. Bob edited the exhibition catalog, which was published in February 2013 by the Florida Cattlemen’s Foundation and has contributed more than sixty feature articles to the Florida Cattleman magazine. His documentary photos have been shown in numerous exhibitions and published in Newsweek, The New York Times, Forum, Wooden Boat and other print media. Bob is the author of Sacred Steel: Inside an African American Steel Guitar Tradition, University of Illinois Press, 2010, and he has produced eight CD albums of the music for Arhoolie Records. This event is funded in part by a Florida Humanities Community Project Grant, in partnership with Friends of the Eau Gallie Public Library.