Ranching in the West: (449) –The earliest ranchers in the American West were Spaniards who...
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Transcript of Ranching in the West: (449) –The earliest ranchers in the American West were Spaniards who...
• Ranching in the West: (449)– The earliest ranchers in the
American West were Spaniards who imported cattle from Spain in the 1500s.
– By the 1850s, Texans had interbred English Cattle with Spanish cattle to produce a new breed – the Texas Longhorn
– Texas Longhorn: although their meat was typically tough and stringy, longhorns were hardy, able to survive long distances on little water, and could live year-round on grass.
– Equally important , Longhorns were immune to Texas fever, a cattle disease carried my ticks
– The growth of eastern cities ensured an increasing demand for beef
• Ranching in the West: (449)– The Spanish also introduced
sheep ranching.– The Cowboys despised sheep
believing that they ate the roots of the grass and ruined it for the cattle
– Despite such conflicts, sheep ranching remained a profitable enterprise
• The Cattle Industry: (450)– The workers who took
care of a rancher’s cattle were known as cowboys.
– Cowboys worked hard: worked through all kinds of weather and made very little money.
• The Cattle Industry: (450)– The Cowboys: (450)
• Many cowboys were:
– Confederate veterans from the Civil War
– African Americans– Mexican– Mexican American
• The Cattle Industry: (450)– The Cowboys: (450)
• African American Cowboys
– African American Cowboys escaped most of the discrimination of the postwar era
– A few African American Cowboys became trail bosses
– African American cowboys were, however, more likely to be assigned unpleasant tasks
• The Cattle Industry: (450)– Life on the Trail:
• Moving the cattle from Texas to the rail lines in Missouri and Kansas posed a major problem for cattle ranchers.
• To reach the railroads, cowboys herded as many as 3,000 cattle on long drives
• Long drives were overland treks that covered hundreds of miles and lasted several months
• The Trail usually ended in Kansas because cattle in Missouri were not immune to Texas fever.
• The Cattle Industry: (450)– Life on the Trail:
• On a typical long drive, a trail boss managed a crew of about 10 cowboys.
• Managing a herd was a tough job:
– River crossings, where swift currents might drown hundreds of animals, proved very hazardous
– The worst danger was a stampede: almost any unexpected sound could panic the cattle
• Cattle Towns: (450-451)– Every long drive ended at a
railhead, a town located along a railroad, where brokers bought cattle to ship east on railroad cars
– Early cattle towns consisted of little more than a general store, a hotel or boardinghouse, a railroad depot, and a stockyard.
– Prosperous cattle towns attracted businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, and their families
• Ranching: (452)– The US government
converted more American Indian territory into public land, cattle ranching then spread west.
– The government allowed cattle ranchers to use public land as open ranges: or free grazing land.
– The access to open ranges helped make cattle ranching profitable
• Ranching: (452)– Ranch Profits: (452)
• Although some families established ranches, it was large investment companies for the most part that took advantage of the government’s offer of land – Open Ranges.
• Financed by eastern and European investors, these companies created huge ranches.
• Chicago investors owned the 3.5 million-acre XIT Ranch in the Texas panhandle
• Most ranchers did not own this much land. Instead, they concentrated on buying range rights, or water rights to ponds and rivers
• These rights gave ranchers access to scarce water as well as ownership of the land around it
• With range rights, ranchers could stop farmers and ranchers from coming onto their private property and using the water
• Ranching: (452)– Ranch Life: (452)
• Both cattle and sheep ranches demanded hard labor from ranch families.
• Women did the housework, cooked for all hired cowboys, and helped out with fence-mending, herding, and other chores.
• Because ranches were so far apart, ranchers became very lonely
• The End of the Cattle Boom: (453-454)
– The cattle boom lasted about 20 years.
– Several factors led to the Cattle Boom’s end:
1. Ranchers eager for large profits crowded the open range with too many cattle; prices crashed in 1885 as supply far exceeded demand
2. Ranchers faced increasing competition for the use of the open range; used barbed wire
3. Bad weather dealt the final blow to the open range• Blizzards – cattle died and were found
frozen; some ranchers lost 90% of their herd
• The End of the Cattle Boom: (453-454)– In 1874 Illinois farmer Joseph
Glidden patented barbed wire, a cheap fencing material.
– Ranchers initially refused to use barbed wire, fearing it would injure the cattle
– By the 1880s, cattle ranchers and farmers had erected miles of barbed wire across the open range to control access to land and water.