Bullwhackers & Muleskinners

Zeke deTruth. That is me, world renowned treasure hunter and archaeologist. I am a character in the weeklong Adventure Awaits, our children’s event of the summer 2024. I am supposed to have a French accent, but it often is Cajun, TexMex, southern drawl. and even a pirate (RRrrrh-matey, we will find the treasure.) So I am kind of a multi-personality treasure hunter.

I loosely dress myself to the likeness of Indiana Jones. Leather jacket. Fedora. Canvas messenger bag. Bullwhip with whip holder. And of all this, the kids love the bullwhip. The load snap. The crack of the whip piercing the room. A sudden and often unexpected abrupt sonic boom.

Kids want to hear it, play with it, and give it try to ‘SNAP’.

I looked into the history of the bullwhip. No one really knows the origin, but one article talks about how the bullwhip was a major tool in the settling of the American West.

There are a lot of characters we know from the American West – cowboys, US Army/Calvary, Native Americans, ranchers, immigrants, gunslingers. But rarely mentioned, yet very important, were the Bullwhackers and Muleskinners. These were the brave and rugged men, and women, that drove the wagon trains. Even after the iron horse made the West accessible, there was much of the land that still was only accessible any the wagon trains.

Think UPS of 1800s. They guided pioneers. They delivered wares, clothing, tools, food goods, and more. No Prime next day delivery was available, They united families.

And there tool – bullwhips.

Bullwhackers  – they directed the Oxen through prompting, whipping, cursing, and probably punching (what is punching a doggie anyway?). They were rarely used on the cattle though … that could damage the cattle and you didn’t want that. But the ‘sonic-boom’ would startle them and hopefully prompt them to action. 

Muleskinners – did the same but to mules. 

Thousands of wagons. Tens of thousands of Oxen and mules. Thousands of employees. Hundreds of thousands of people transported, supplied, protected by Bullwhackers and Muleskinners – and their whips.

Bullwhips have grown in modern culture with movie characters using a whip – of which Indiana Jones is the biggest. Good guys and bad guys alike.

There are various types, various weights, various materials, and have various purposes. Some whips can run in the thousands of dollars.

A curious factum I learned is the crack is really a sonic boom – a snap made when the shockwave of the leather going faster than speed of sound. A bullwhip makes a mini sonicboom.

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The point of today – none. Except the history of little things are kind of cool. Little details are important.  

And when I think of God, I realize He is huge, awe-inspiring, universal magnitude … but also He is the God of small stuff. He cares about the little details of our lives … the hurts, the sorrows, the yearnings.  He cares.

And he cares about this week and Zeke deTruth’s role in helping the kids discover the greatest treasure – God’s truth!