From Lonesome Dove to Menard, Texas. In Search of the “Real” Jake Spoon.

From Lonesome Dove to Menard, Texas. In Search of the “Real” Jake Spoon. Who was the real Jake Spoon? Lonesome Dove is a beloved historical novel and iconic Western TV series. We know Gus and Call were based on Cattlemen Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight. Blue Duck was a real outlaw born in the Cherokee Nation. But how many know of the real Jacob Spoon? Where did author Larry McMurtry come up with that character? Did he just pull the name off of a Texas headstone? The real Jake Spoon is nothing like the character in Lonesome Dove. He was a real-life cowboy who made about ten trips from Texas to Kansas, died on a cot in his front yard and is buried in Menard, Texas. He would probably be rolling over in his grave at the Pioneer Rest Cemetery, to know his name had become synonymous with a despicable outlaw who abused women. The real Jacob Spoon was such an upstanding representative of the trail driving cowboy, he was even immortalized in a poem written by a fellow cowboy, by J.R. Pettitt “Sam Hunter’s Trail Hands” , sometime in the early 1900’s. “Jake Spoon’s the flank puncher-so slowly he rides He punches the doggies from center to side Jake is an old puncher he’s been there before Has punched the doggies in gone days of yor.” Author, Megan Willome has written about the main characters in McMurtry’s story. She was spot on in her assessment of Jake’s character. Here is her presentation of the weak and affable Jake and why he is a character we love to hate. Rest easy, Jake. Now that we know you were one of the good ones, we will celebrate you as the real trail hand you were. N30 54.660, W99 47.343