Highsmith, Carol M. Old-timey cook up the road from the “Cowboy Mardi Gras” in little Bandera, Texas, west of San Antonio. 2014. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014631540/.
Begin by displaying the image and asking students to do a quickwrite responding to the prompt: What do you notice, and what story do you think this photo tells? Students will then work in pairs to complete a primary source analysis organizer, focusing on clothing, setting, tools, and expressions to infer historical or cultural context. As a class, discuss the significance of traditions like Cowboy Mardi Gras and how rural communities preserve heritage through food, festivals, and visual storytelling. Students will be expected to support their interpretations with visual evidence and connect the photograph to broader themes like regional identity, tradition, and rural life.
Bandera was founded in the 1850s when sixteen Polish Roman Catholic families from Silesia settled in the area to work at a newly established mill, shaping the town’s strong Polish‑American heritage. It later became known as the “Cowboy Capital of the World,” serving as a key staging area for cattle drives on the Great Western Cattle Trail during the late 19th century.
- What kind of cooking equipment or tools do you see? How are they different from what we use today?
- How does the person and/or vehicle in the photo help tell the story of daily life in this rural Texas town?
- What clues in the image help you understand a cook’s role?
ELA Standard
AL.6.7.a: Write narratives incorporating key literary elements, including characters, plot, setting, point of view, resolution of a conflict, dialogue, and sensory details.
Social Studies Standard
D2.His.3.6-8: Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- To engage students with the photograph “Old-timey cook up the road from the ‘Cowboy Mardi Gras’ in little Banderas, Texas,” the lesson will begin with a visual analysis activity. Students will view the image and answer the instructional focus questions for the primary source.
- The teacher will then provide a brief reading of Bandera’s history, highlighting its Polish roots, its role in cattle drives, and its modern identity as the “Cowboy Capital of the World.” Students will annotate the reading, looking for historical and cultural details that might connect to the photograph.
- The teacher will incorporate a short video clip on Bandera’s cowboy culture. Next, students will use a primary source analysis organizer to examine the cook’s clothing, tools, and setting in relation to Bandera’s cowboy traditions and rural identity.
- In small groups, they will discuss: What does this video suggest about the role of food, tradition, and celebration in this community? Groups will compare their findings with historical facts and identify elements of continuity (e.g., use of traditional dress or open-fire cooking).
- Students will then write a first-person journal entry from the perspective of the “old-timey cook,” using sensory details and historically grounded imagination to tell a story about preparing food for Cowboy Mardi Gras. This creative writing task encourages students to synthesize visual and textual evidence into a narrative that reflects both individual experience and cultural context.
- The lesson will conclude with a quickwrite using one of the following sentence stems:
- Today I learned that rural communities like Bandera . . .
- Something interesting about rural life in the past is . . .
- Today I learned that rural communities like Bandera . . .
Highsmith, Carol M. Even windmills get a touch of Texas in little Bandera, the "Cowboy Capital of Texas," west of San Antonio. 2014. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2014631454/.