In the mountains of west Texas or on the vast desert plain to the east, the surefooted burro was many a lone cowboy’s only friend. A monument to mules has been erected in Muleshoe—a sign at the city limits welcomes you to the Greater Muleplex.

The first member of the horse family to be domesticated, the ass was brought to the New World by the Spanish colonists and is commonly known in Mexico and the southwestern United States by its Spanish name, burro.