Use of compass when out riding,

I think the compass thing was just a weak plot point to help illustrate the differences between this ship captain tinhorn and the Texans, he being a tinhorn dude in their minds. No doubt this wasn't accurate to history. I've read that cowboys (someone in their group would usually have a pocket watch) would use their watch faces as a form of compass/direction finder and outdoorsmen in those days were probably much more skilled in navigation/direction finding using the sun/moon/stars than many of us today, disregarding the availability of GPS etc. That's not to say that compasses weren't used but other methods were more available. In established areas maps of some kind may have been available too, as surveying equipment was being used throughout western exploration and development.

One point everyone may have overlooked is that maybe the locals didn't need no steenkin' compass (to paraphrase Ramon's portrayer, Alfonso Bedoya, in another movie!)

The ranchers and their hirelings were familiar enough with their own domain, however vast, and shouldn't be lost without the aid of a compass; although a compass would certainly come in handy should anyone of them venture into terra incognito.

Of course, if Ramon had been better able to articulate to the Major that McKay had a compass, the Major probably would have been a bit less troubled, but would have still sent the search party nevertheless.

Whatever you do, DO NOT read this sig--ACKKK!!! TOO LATE!!!

Okay, I think all of us have overlooked one point: Of course the Major and Leech and most any of their ranch hands knew what a compass was -- they just didn't stop to think that McKay might have had one! And Ramon, with his broken English, simply wasn't able to articulate to the Major that McKay had a compass.

As for Ramon's quaint portrayal, Alfonso Bedoya passed away before this film's release and he obviously wasn't in the best of health when he worked in this, his final picture; Ramon's simplicity need not be viewed strictly as racist stereotyping but could be more benignly interpreted as the fact that he was an old man whose best days, physically and mentally, were behind him. That being said, Ramon wasn't lacking in wisdom and could see grand truisms about McKay that everyone else refused to see ("He is a rare man!")

I once read a book by Theodore White about his experiences as a journalist in Asia during WWII and later. He had gotten to know Mao Zedong and some of the latter's colleagues in those days, and Mao was able to commuincate with White in English. Years later, during the occasion of Nixon's historic visit to China, White was also on hand and he and Mao were reunited; but Mao, now frail and elderly, was only able to smile and greet White with the few English words he could still remember.

Point being, maybe Ramon's own command of the English language, like Mao's, had begun to slip over the years, thus he comes across looking stupid and ignorant in front of the Major when trying to explain McKay's disappearance. In any case, it seems Ramon himself had never seen a compass before and I'm probably the least qualified to speculate as to whether his ignorance of compasses is a weak plot point or not. But it wouldn't be much of a stretch to suppose that Ramon was almost certainly illiterate and uneducated, and I just cannot imagine the Mexican peasentry of the 1800's knowing what a compass was. Certainly an educated Mexican or one who served in the military would know -- but an aging ranch hand like Ramon? I'm not so sure.

Whatever you do, DO NOT read this sig--ACKKK!!! TOO LATE!!!

This point has always bothered me, too. Someone on this site must do orienteering or something!
But it was more than the compass - he had a very crude map. 'Stay between the river(?) and the mountain, (E-W?), and (?) two other points' (N-S). I'm not sure how much a compass would have helped with the crude map, because who could have told him the house was 'SSW' of the ranch? And even with a compass, you might need some distances? An experienced captain like Jim could probably gauge his direction by the sun and stars. So, it was mostly a plot point. (plus, there would have been trails to follow)
We are dealing with vast distances here. The ride may have been 4 hours from the gate to the Major's house. So in a vast, flat land, I think you'd need a detailed map (of rocks and fauna???) and a lot of luck to find a house. A river would be hard to miss.
(I haven't erased the movie yet, and will recheck).
As for Ramon - He didn't know what a compass was. I always assumed he was simple minded, not gifted in language, yet, smart.
As a city boy, I moved to the country in the 70's. I'm a smart cookie - yet in the country, I wasn't all that bright. I was constantly asking my dumb-as-dirt neighbor for help. From a family of 23, none went past the 8th grade. He was so ignorant - yet in country ways, he was an Einstein!

A master mariner, who had brought his ship safely where he intended to go after thousands of miles on the high seas and without -any- landmarks, known or unknown, would be able to journey around the ranch.
The locals, knowing the landmarks, didn't stop to think about the lay of the land ("you're either north or south of the river and east or west of the road." assuming here that The Big Muddy is where they meet.) I'm fairly sure that knowing that, I could have found the place even without a compass (as long as the weather permitted to see the sun or the stars), much less someone who navigated the high seas.
McKay's answer to the question "Have you ever seen something this big?" should give all the hint needed.

I think the Major understood perfectly what Ramon described. He just didn't want to believe that an outsider could beat him at his own game that easily.

I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.

Commenting on a very old post I know, but as I watch this movie now, I noticed that Steve used a pair of binoculars while out in the desert. I think they had binoculars handy and if they thought they would need them, they took them along (obviously). Because they knew of others who got lost doesn't mean that they have. Most people who have misadventures while out exploring Mother Nature believe they are prepared before they start out. Then something unexpected or unforeseen happens and they find themselves in a bad situation they weren't prepared for. It just never occurred to them that a sailor out on the seas is no different than a westerner out in the desert and that he knew how to navigate just as they did.

Without an accurate map, a compass would be of little use for navigation, other than to indicate north, south, east, and west, which can be determined easily by the sun, stars, and landmarks.