In the settling of the West, they were essential but unsung heroes. They symbolized the rugged, durable, arduous traits required to make the odyssey into the American frontier.
Yet while westward expansion is glorified, the ox appears to be forgotten, and the animal is rarely found on the lands it helped settle. In fact, there's a question whether the species known as the ox really existed in the West or whether it was the product of cross-breeding.History books and documentaries say the ox played a prominent role in the movement west - pulling wagons along the Oregon and Mormon trails, both of which weaved through the heart of Wyoming.
Thousands of people are expected this summer to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the trek made by Mormons and to retrace their journey. But, along that route and across most of the Wyoming landscape, nary an ox can be seen.
So what's become of the ox?
"It is a thing of the past - it is like an endangered species," said Gerald Olsen, a third-generation rancher who lives near the path of the Mormon, Oregon and Overland trails. "We can bring oxen back at any time if people had the brainpower on how to train them. But the only reason to bring back a thing like this is for a hobby."
In 1850, the U.S. Census reported there were 1.7 million oxen in the nation. By 1890, that number dropped to about 1.17 million nationally, 720,767 in the West and only 11,684 in Wyoming.
Such statistics are no longer kept, according to officials with the Wyoming Agriculture Statistical Services.
The truth may be that oxen, purely put, were never here - at least as a distinct animal. In that light, ox as a special breed is as real as the big blue Babe of Paul Bunyan lore.
"It's just a myth. Oxen were probably a variety of breeds," said Robert Boyd, a professor in the Agriculture Department of Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne. "So as such there was probably never a true breed."
The mystique and misconceptions of the animal are widespread, said Jim Mattson, site manager of a living history farm in Minnesota that uses a couple of hybrid oxen.
"Typically, we have 30,000 to 40,000 visitors a year and many of them have that question: What happened to them?" said Mattson, whose farm duplicates pioneer life between 1850 and 1876. "We have to really explain what they are."
Mattson and Boyd say the ox could have been any crossbreed, possibly reddish or brown or spotted and possibly including Hereford, Longhorn, line-back or shorthorn crossbreeds to develop muscle for work on the range.
The animals typically were allowed to continue building muscle as draft animals beyond 10 years of age, and they grew to about 2,000 pounds. An average steer for beef purposes is about half that size.
Part of the ox's demise - or perhaps, more accurately, its transformation - can be traced to breeding patterns. Settlers, having arrived at their destinations, found the animals more productive for breeding beef cattle than moving wagons or plowing fields.
And progress eventually erased the need for these beasts of burden - much like motorcycles now are taking the place of horses for herding cattle.
"Soon as they got modern transportation, we could plow better in the fields with a dadgum tractor," said Olsen, who lives in Nebraska, in "spitting distance" of the Wyoming state line. "They didn't disappear from the planet. They were just turned out to pasture. Instead of working in the fields, you eat them."