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century saw changes in the range cattle industry, in many cases so drastic and of such a magnitude as to leave the average cattleman far back in the dust if he wasn’t scrutinizing carefully what was happening around him.


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Some of these rapid-fire changes in the central and northern plains were causing great amounts of money to change hands so quickly that every financial center in the United States and Europe was nervously awaiting news of stock prices, land sales, new governmental actions concerning “public domain” and more.


Early in the 1880s, the Fever Tick became more of an impetus for change than even the introduction of improved breeds on the plains. In Kansas, Texas, and the Indian Territory, the illusive fever tick left its mark on the thinking and judgment of the citizens. In 1884, Kansas passed a law which would be the end of an era. This law forbade any Texas cattle to be moved into Kansas except between December 1 and March 1. This law covered the entire season in which Texas Longhorns could be brought into the state, thus causing a disaster for the drovers and cattle owners of Texas and the Indian Territories. As a result, cattle prices began to fall immediately in these areas, causing Texans to protest loud and clear against the legislation.


As a last-ditch effort to save the trails, Texas Representative James F. Miller introduced a bill in Congress asking for a national cattle trail extending from the northern boundary of Texas to the Canadian border. This trail would have been no more than six miles wide. This singular trail would be complete with grazing grounds, along with quarantine grounds and crossings for “native” cattle that would not exceed 200 feet in width. The bill called for three commissioners to be selected by the Secretary of the Interior to lay out the route.


But the national trail had no chance from the beginning, even though the majority of Texans supported it vehemently. By


he last two decades of the 19th


this time, the northern plains were nearly overstocked with cattle, and once again, the Kansas settlers feared Texas fever. In addition, the ranchers of Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, who were grazing cattle largely on the public domain, knew that Texas ranchmen would be bringing herds onto the northern plains, thus severely overstocking the already crowded range. A compromise was attempted between the Texans and the northern plainsmen, but failed because of irreparable differences.


One possible remedy for the situation of getting Texas cattle north was the building of railroad trunk lines through Indian Territory into Texas, but shipping cattle by rail cost three times as much and was oftentimes damaging to the cattle.


But despite the demoralizing changes that were striking out at Texas and the Indian Territory ranchers, ranching on the central and northern plains was bursting ahead at full speed. A national depression was over, and euphoric feelings that “a man just CAN’T lose money with the cattle industry on the plains” were sweeping not only the United States, but were causing financiers in Europe to part with great amounts of money for speculation on the American cattle market. The influence of ranching in this “new” area cannot be overestimated, as it proved to be one of the most significant contributors to the nation’s economy in the second half of the 19th century.


This cattle bonanza, as many called it, provided millions of dollars in investment capital, created jobs, and picked up the economy of the corn belt states by providing a market for all surplus grain that was available. It was also greatly responsible for the development of the packing industries and the resulting export trade in both dressed beef and cattle.


The people of Texas had created the ranch cattle industry, but until the Civil War was history, the central and northern plains had almost no cattle. There were a few frontier stock-raisers and settlers in the eastern


portions of Kansas and Nebraska with a few head, but nothing of any consequence. This started to change in the late 1850s when the gold rush settled in the Pike’s Peak area.


One of the gold-seekers who struck out and turned to other means of support was J.W. Iliff, later to be known as “cattle king” of Colorado and Wyoming. After his run to the Colorado gold rush in 1859, Iliff soon became disappointed and settled on a small piece of land near Denver. Here, he raised vegetables for sale to the miners, saved a little money and moved further north to establish a store near the present site of Cheyenne. Being located on the trail to California and Oregon, he had many opportunities to trade supplies for footsore cattle, which he normally picked up for a very small sum. After acquiring a considerable amount of these cattle, the Union Pacific Railway pushed westward near his ranch and store. All of a sudden, Iliff had an immediate market by supplying the railway construction camps with beef. He soon bought some Texas Longhorns from a trail drive, and afterwards became the richest cattleman in that area of the plains.


In his 1882 book entitled, “The Beef Bonanza: Or How To Get Rich On The Plains,” US Army General James S. Brisbin told of Iliff’s remarks regarding his cattle ranching enterprise:


“I have been engaged in the stock business in Colorado and Wyoming for the past 14 years. During all that time, I have grazed stock in nearly all the valleys of these territories, both summer and winter. The cost of both summering and wintering is simply the cost of herding, as no feed nor shelter is required. I consider the summer-cured grass of the plains and valleys as superior to any hay. My cattle have not only kept in good order on this grass through all the light winters, but many of them, thin in the fall, have become fine beef by spring. During this time, I have owned over 20,000 head of cattle. The percentage of loss in wintering here is much less than in the states, where cattle are stabled and fed on corn and hay. The cost of raising cattle here can be shown from the fact that I would be glad to contract to furnish any quantity


2017 SEPTEMBER i TEXAS LONGHORN JOURNAL 27


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