Stock Raising On The Plains, 1870-1871
Silas Reed, the first Surveyor General
for the Territory of Wyoming, included in his 1871 annual report
to the U. S. Commissioner of the General Land Office, some
interesting remarks and statistics on the early day cattle and
sheep industries in Wyoming. It is with a great deal of interest
we are including the bulk of his report on cattle and sheep in
this number of the Annals. M. H. E.
So much has been written by Dr. Latham and other gentlemen of
experience, in regard to the advantages and facilities for
raising stock on these plains, and the remarkable fact, proven
by many years of past experience, that it will subsist through
the winter upon the summer-cured grasses as they stand on the
ground without shelter or other care than for the herdsmen to
guard them from separating and wandering off, that I need not
recapitulate.
Below I give the list of stock, so far as I have been able to
obtain reliable data, which has been pastured this season in the
localities named, along the Union Pacific Railroad, between the
waters of the North Platte and the Laramie plains. It has been
introduced here within the last two or three years, and very
largely within the present year. There is abundance of room for
many times as much more:
Owner |
Residence |
Where Herded |
Kind |
No |
E. Creighton & Co. |
|
Laramie Plains |
Stock Cattle |
15,000 |
E.
Creighton & Co. |
|
Laramie Plains |
Calves |
1,800 |
E.
Creighton & Co. |
|
Laramie Plains |
Mares |
1,000 |
Dr. Latham & Captain Coates |
Laramie |
Laramie Plains |
Stock & Claves |
4,000 |
L. Fillmore |
Laramie |
|
Stock |
300 |
L.
Fillmore |
|
Laramie Plains |
Dairy Cows |
100 |
Ora Haley |
|
Laramie Plains |
|
700 |
______ Bennett |
|
Elk Mountain |
Stock |
400 |
______ Carmichael |
|
Laramie Plains |
American |
300 |
Clarence King & N.R. Davis |
California |
Lone Tree Creek |
|
500 |
Thomas & Hay |
Cheyenne |
Lone Tree Creek |
|
150 |
J. W. Hiff |
Cheyenne |
Crow Creek & Platte |
|
12,000 |
D. & J. Snyder |
Cheyenne |
|
Beef & Stock |
5,000 |
M. V. Boughton |
Cheyenne |
Horse Creek |
|
600 |
J. H. Durbin & Bro. |
Cheyenne |
Horse Creek |
|
600 |
F. Landan |
Cheyenne |
Pole Creek |
|
200 |
Tracy & Hutchinson |
Cheyenne |
Pole Creek |
|
700 |
J. M. Carey & Bro. |
Cheyenne |
Crow Creek |
|
700 |
Nuckolls & Gallagher |
Cheyenne |
Platte |
|
3,000 |
Frank Ketchum |
Cheyenne |
|
Milch Cows |
150 |
W. D. Pennock |
Cheyenne |
|
Milch Cows |
40 |
James A. Moore |
|
Pole Creek |
|
1,300 |
W. G. Bullock |
Fort Laramie |
Horse Creek |
|
4,000 |
Ed. Creighton |
Omaha |
Horse Creek |
|
3,500 |
Texas Owner |
|
Horse Creek |
|
1,500 |
Milner & Davis |
|
Horse Creek |
|
200 |
______ Farrel |
|
Laramie River |
|
300 |
______ Tracy |
|
Muddy Creek |
|
500 |
______ Whitcomb |
|
Box Elder |
Beef Cattle |
1,000 |
J. S. Maynard |
|
Lone Tree |
|
200 |
Gens.
Duncan, Perry & Short |
|
Horse Creek |
|
2,400 |
Keith & Barton |
|
North Platte |
Yearkings |
3,000 |
______ Brown |
|
North Platte |
Stock |
1,300 |
Major Walker |
|
North Platte |
Stock |
500 |
Coe & Carter |
|
North Platte |
Stock |
9,000 |
E. Creighton |
|
North Platte |
Stock |
800 |
Taylor, Galylord & Co. |
|
Cache la Poudre |
Stock |
5,000 |
D. C. Tracy |
Pine Bluffs |
Pine Bluffs |
Stock |
700 |
Ecoflfey & Co. |
|
Sabylle Creek |
Stock |
350 |
______ Powell |
|
North Fork Laramie |
Stock |
1,500 |
Benjamin Mills |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
400 |
K. Whalen |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
250 |
John Phillips |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
250 |
______ Simpson |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
100 |
H. B. Kelley |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
750 |
John Hinton |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
125 |
W. G. Bullock |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
125 |
F. M. Phillips |
|
Chugwater |
Stock |
2,100 |
Adolph Cuny |
|
North Platte |
Stock |
1,000 |
Dickey & Sloan |
|
Muddy Creek |
American |
80 |
The editor of the Western World has
published in his New York paper the following observations in
regard to stock and grazing on these plains, being the result of
what he saw and learned while on a recent tour through here to
California. In his estimate he includes the large herds in the
neighborhood of the junction of the two Platte Rivers, and in
the Humboldt Valley, and is therefore larger than the list of
herds principally in Wyoming. I have introduced these remarks
from the Western World in order that stock-growers in the States
may see what impartial non-residents say of this great
industrial interest on the late "American Desert'":
"On a recent visit to the Pacific coast over the Union and
Central Pacific Railroads, I took some pains to ascertain the
amount of cattle now being pastured along those roads. I have
more than once insisted that the belt of country on the Laramie
Plains, and just east of the Rocky Mountains, and a portion of
the Humboldt Valley adjacent to the Pacific road, embraced some
of the finest grazing lands on the continent, and had heard a
good deal recently about the large herds which have been driven
from Texas and the Indian Nation during the past year, to be
fattened on the nutritious grasses of the Platte River and
Laramie Plains, preparatory to shipment over the railroad to the
markets of the East. I knew that the business had become a large
one, but had no idea of the extent to which it has attained a
business, be it remembered, which is but just commenced, as two
years ago there was not a hoof in the whole country, except
draught cattle belonging to trains, and a few ranchero's cows,
where today there are not less than 140,000 head of cattle,
5,000 horses, and over 75,000 sheep, on the Union Pacific west
of Fort Kearney.
"On the Laramie Plains, and east of Laramie Mountain, Wyoming,
are a great many small herds of from 100 to 500 beef and stock
cattle, and large flocks of sheep, of which we were unable to
learn the names of the owners, and which many good judges
estimate would swell the figures far above the aggregate which l
have just ventured to state. The greater portion of these cattle
were driven hither from the southern part of Texas. It is
estimated that more than 400,000 head have been driven out of
Texas during the past year alone."
"There is no doubt in my mind that the tendency which has
attained the above startling proportions in a single year is a
permanent one, and will grow with every season. For a space
fully seven hundred miles long and two hundred broad, along the
base of the Rocky Mountains, there is one of the finest and
cheapest grazing countries in the world. The valleys, bluffs,
and low hills, are covered with a luxuriant growth of grama or
'bunch' grass, one of the most nutritious grasses that grows. It
grows from 6 to 12 inches high, and is always green near the
roots, summer and winter. During the summer the dry atmosphere
cures the standing grass as effectually as though cut and
prepared for hay. The nutritive qualities of the grass remain
uninjured, and stock thrive equally well on the dry feed. In the
winter what snow falls is Very dry, unlike that which falls in
more humid climates. It may cover the grass to the depth of a
few inches, but the cattle readily remove it, reaching the grass
without trouble.
"Again, the snow does not stick to the sides of the cattle and
melt there, chilling them through, but its dryness causes it to
roll from their backs, leaving their hair dry. There is no
stabling required; stock 'run out the year round,' and the cost
of keeping is just what it will cost to employ herders, no more
and with the great Pacific road traversing it from east to west,
it is always within a few days of the eastern markets. The
advantages are great, and a new and vast industry is springing
up."
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