Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-17
SCENE ON WESTERN RANCH,

Philadelphia Times: Did you ever see
q horse round-up?' queried the stockman.
mo? Well, you've missed the sight of
your life. A cattle roundup amt in it
with a horse roundup, and 1 ought to
Know, for I've been in some of the biggest
OF both kinds. A cattle roundup is ex-
citing enough, perhaps, with the saddlinG
up, the drive, the night herd, the stam-
pede and all that, but if you want real
action you want to see a horse roundup.
/ guess it would be pretty hard to find a
horse roundup nowadays. If horses are
valuable they don't let 'em loose like that
and real wild range horses are hardly
worth rounding up any more. knen l
was UP in Montana in 80 there was a
horse roundup on nearly every range.
The Swedes and N~orwegians We're coming
into Dakota and taking up the wheat
lands. they had to have horses, but they
couldn't pay over $75 or 500 a team, so
they bought almost anything in the shape
of a horse that was broke enough to put a
harness On.
Range horses We're pretty cheap up in
Montana then. though they were worth
more than they are now. Some buyer
used to put out a standing offer Of $25 a
head for any likely looking wild animal
over three years old. They'd collect hum
dreds of these, take a bunch of horse
Wranglers and riders with them and drive
overland to Dakota. The men would be
breaking horses to ride and drive all the
way down. They'd go to some Dakota
town and rent a corral. Here they'd have
q headquarters. They'd break horses day
and night, and it wouldn't cost much for
feed, because they'd herd the bunch out
on the prairie. 1t used to be a great sight.
this breaking, but that isn't what
started to tell you about.
For ten years before this the ranchers
had been raising horses in Northern Mon
tana, just like they raised cattle. That is,
they'd let them run loose all the year
round. In the summer they'd have a colt
roundup, just like a calf roundup, only
they'd pull it off toward fall, just before
the beef gather. The horsemen would hold
a meeting and agree upon the boundaries
OF a big circle, say 200 miles across. Each
one would furnish so man. men and sad
de horses and they'd start on a certain
day on the outside Of this circle and drive
all the horses they found toward the GEN.
ter, where there was a big corral. This
corral had big wings built, one from it
leading to the gate, because driving
horses was a different thing from driving
ever the widest kind of cattle.
The men as they rode from the outside
of the circle would start the bands Of wild
horses toward this corral. They'd start
them as gently as they could, but the
horses were as wild as deer and they'd
run like the wind. Each day the horse
wranSlers would get near and nearer the
corral. The circle would get smaller and
smaller, and it would begin to look as
though all the horses in the world were
grazing and running in those hills and
valleys. After two or three days the wild
stock would get more accustomed to see
ing the horsemen, and they We're easier to
drive.
by the time the circle was drawn
within five or six miles of the corral
things would get exciting. There would be
5000 or 1900 head of horses inside. the line
and it puzzled the riders to keep the lot
from spreading. The bands which had
been accustomed to run together would
keep pretty we'll punched, but the geld
tngs would break away once IN a while
and hun a fight with some stranger. It
WAS quick work for the riders and took
lots of addle horses, for every one rode
top speed all the time.
THESE horses were a pretty sight, with
shaggy coats, long names n tails
0weepirg the ground. Once in a while a
range ,.tallion would be found herding
his family and offering battle to a man on
horseback. Sometimes we had to shoot
them, they made so much trouble. Then
cams the cutting put of the mares and
ooltA The colts would be branded and