Bands of elk are found frozen to death. Many wild animals perish, and thousands of cattle in the valley die. This trick of Mother Nature is a warning for future preparation which the ranchers are quick to heed. Irrigation ditches are surveyed and plowed. More seed is sown in the natural grass meadows.
Men grub sage brush and clear former grazing lands.
Fences begin to appear everywhere. The cattle are driven farther back into the mountains in summer. The cattle and sheep men agree on a boundary line after the encroachment of sheep on the cattle grazing districts is the cause of several quarrels. The last of these open disputes occurs in 1898 when seventy-five men meet on Cottonwood and ride to Gray's River. Here a few sheep are killed killed and the cattlemen's determination to hold the range is made plain to the sheepmen.