Some of the ranchers have built fences around their homesteads and cut the wild hay. For the most part, hovever, the cattle graze on the range in winter as well as in the summer. They are able to dig through the snow for the hearty bunch grass. The willows and cottonwoods along the streams provide good shelter from the storms. 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.