What is...

a "Catskinner"? I noticed some people have searched for the word when looking at the youtube channel I have. The feedjit gadget at the bottom of this blog lets me see where visitors come from and what terms they used to get here. It is a word that some might not know or understand. I always had only a rough understanding myself so I googled and found this at a website called Kids-n-Cowboys:

The life of a “teamster”, be they a “bull whacker” or “mule skinner”, was no snap, and they usually occupied the lowest rung on the social ladder. The breed of plains men drawn to this profession were never in the mainstream of frontier life; as a group they were probably the least literate of frontiersmen. Their sweat-soaked, vermin infested hair and clothing, and vile language helped earn them this low position. They were usually red-shirted, brigands, jailbirds and desperados that commonly carried a “bowie knife”, revolver and a “bull whip”. If there was one thing in common between “bull whackers” and “mule skinners” it’s the bullwhip. It was his badge of recognition. The lash might be as short as ten or as long as twenty feet of heavy braided rawhide with a “popper” on the end to make it crack. There are many legends of drivers that could “flick” a fly off the ear of an animal without touching it. Merely cracked overhead, a bullwhip could inspire the dumbest ox or most obstinate mule to greater effort. For any frontiersman that dared to challenged a teamster, the bullwhip could be a more feared weapon than his revolver or knife.~Kids-n-Cowboys

At the turn of the last century, machinery began to replace draft animals used to tug, tow or haul heavy loads, the muleskinner and his unique profession became a thing of the past. One of those machines used to replace the mule or an ox was made by the Holt company, because of its linked track design it was known as a caterpillar as Mark Twain was once thought to have exclaimed that the machine resembled one. In 1925 Holt merged with the Best (another tracked equipment manufacturer), and the result was a company called Caterpillar. The machine and designs were so good that almost any machine that used a linked track was referred to as a "Cat". I think that you can now see where this is going...somebody that operates a piece of heavy equipment, in my line of work anyway, is called a "Catskinner". Despite the passage above that refers to a Mulskinner as occupying the "lowest rung" of society, there is no term I am more proud to called than a Catskinner. I just wish we still used the bullwhip ;-)