Civilization was encroaching on the Wild West in the 1890s, as cowboys began to trade their trusted steeds for bicycles. At least that’s what was reported in the December 18, 1895 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Kansas and Texas cowboys are now using bicycles in herding, rounding up and driving cattle to pasture, corral or barn. As a lively broncho has more double cussedness bound up in his diminutive carcass than any other animal in existence, the use of the wheel in its stead will destroy the romance which distance lends to the festive cowboy. Imagine a long haired, leather-breeched, sombreroed cowboy, guns, cartridge belt. etc.; cavorting across prairie, canyon and divide, in the effort to round up or rope a frisky long horn or cut out marketable steers from the bunch. Then when the Mescalero, Chiricahua and Yaqui Apache, the hereditary foes of the cowboy, are compelled to steal the bicycles instead of the ponies of the cow punchers, the demoralization of the trail, round-up and drive will have been complete.”

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“Bucking Broncho,” 1894: