Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-07-09
Cattle on the plains.

Cattle on tho Plains.
The Drive Of ls73-Ths wiohit'
Herds--The Arkansas Val
hi ley-0reat BEND.
Taikisg ysish shs Seattle Kings''-
Cattle In Colorado.
!. from the Chicago In'er-ocean.1
= BiJOU CATTLE RANGE, CoL.,
june 21st, 1873.
!. The stock dealers excursion part!
, have returned 10 Kansas City ANT
Chicago, after having visited nearly
every important herding ground II
! the West. They were Afforded OPP
, portunities, which were eagerly cin'
! braccd by all, TO CLEAN much valuable
! information relative to the location
condition and extent Of the
TEXAS CATTLE DRIVE OF 1873.
After two weeks constant inter.
, course. with herders and drOvers, and
daily yisitations among tho vast
, herds of "long horns" gathered. in
the vicinity OF Wichita, Great Bend.
Ellsworth and other less prominent
shipping points upon the Colorado
and Kansas borders, l I'm obliged,
) for the sake of truth, to correct o
statement made In my last letter from
'the cattle trail' to the effect that the
''drive from Texas this year would
fall one-third in number below that
Of 1872" The drive ofthis season will
exceed the drive oElast year by manv
thousands, and when IL IL further
taken Into consideration thar the
drive from tins territory instead OF
to it will be nearly One-third as large
as that of Texas, it is no difficult
matter for a practical mind to draw
correct conclusions with reference to
the coming fall market. 1t is the
general opinion among stock men
that the market has been "bulled"
with Texas ~"beeves," and that thous-
ands of head of "stock cattle' will
have to be driven South and South
west to winter. But it is not the
object of this letter to prognOsticate
as to the future disposition to be
made of the countless herds of cattle
now grazing here upon the plains,
but to give as c al accurate report
of the number and condition of the
different herds through which wo
passed.
THE WICHITA HERDS.
There were reported last week at
Wichita, Or upon the Niniscah and
Cow Skin streams, 25 miles south
west of that place, about $4,000 head
of cattle, about half of which are
bceves or steers over 8 years Of age,
the balance being COWS, ycarlings aud
2-ycar Odds, or, as they arc termed,
"stock CATTLE" Wichita will cease
to be a cattle shipping point of any
Importance with tho present season,
aud even this year her shipments east
ward will be less than one-third as
heavy as those of her rival, Ellsworth.
The cause of this decline in her cattle
trade, is the surprising rapidity with
which tho country south and south
west of Wichita is filling up with ac-
tual settlers. The "homestcadcr" is
building his shanty upon nearly every
quarter section of open prairie with
in thirty. miles of Wichita, and, in a
country where a strip of blowing |
ten feet wide around q quarter Sec
ton Of land constitutes a legal fence,
and III acre of sod corn n farm, it is
no easy task for n Texan drover, with |
his half dozen "cow boys" to keep
his herd of cattle from trespassing
upon those s~o-callcd farms.
II ARKANSAS VALLEY.
The route of our excursion party
on leaving Wichita was back TO
Newton, once the great cattle head
quarters, II now n dull, half-inhab-
tied village of pine shaitties, situated
in the midst of a sparcly-settled
country. Newtoh's only interesting
is its cemetery, in which there
only seventeen graves, sixteen of
which are filled by the bodies of men
who ''died with their boots on" the
from an uumentiona-
BILE disease. From Newton our route
was westward along the fertile but
mo%notonous Arkansas river
bottoms. II is only within the past
Wo years that this valley has been
thrown open to settlement, and it I
Gems almost incredible that such n
Vast extent of country could have |
Deen settled within such n brief peri |
'd Of time. For at least 200 miles 1
llong the valley-which is n level I
olaln with scarcely q tree its entire c
ensth, the hardy settler has .sdriven
lis stake" aud plowed his patch of
round for sod corn, and every dav I
hundreds to the already coIlpar- c
lively well settled valley, and [ will n
i'd every day drives the seattle trail, p
till further west. 1
D GREAT BEND. II
The town located in the great bend @ !,
u inc arkansas river is an cnterpris- l
niue place. 1t was located bv q U
oiony rom Quincy about one wear y
nj a half ago, and shows many evi. r
,ences OF prosperity and thrift. o
Amohg them is a handsome two-story y
ram schooi house which cost 81, 800, II
Drlck ana stone courthouse, to :
When completed $4,000. Great y
'end has INDUCED in great expecta- G.
W even now are not quite u
elliHguished-of being the point for
ne Texas cattle trade, when it shall
ave entirely abandoned Wichita. II
ut her expectations are vain, and =,
no doubt her people have by this r.
me commenced to realize the posi- -,
on. Not one single. herd has rem. VI
ezvoused at Great Bend. nor win e,
ny drover attempt to hold a herd i'm %
he Hat marshy bottoms in the yiciu- =,
y of Great Bend. Several large -.
erds crossed the Arkansas river. ~
lille our party s%ojourned i'm that S1
lcilhity, but it was found next to all ca
possibility to hold herd in within w.
m miles OF the river, owing to the w
Vulnerable swarms of flies and ",
which infest the valley at r.,
lat point. The stock herders were !,
liytoo glad to continue their drive =.
orthward to Ellsworth. ~
CATTLE ON A THOUSAND HILLS. DIR
We left the Atchison, Topeka and al
III Fe railway at Great Bend, and sif
arted across the plains towards the M
ansas Pacific railway. Our route be
y eastward as far rs Fort Zarab. go
here we struck what is known ms I'll
Jox.s trail" having been surveyed
Mr.. William NJ. Cox. v]cner,