The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1902-11-21
THE CATTLECO COUNTRY
Interesting Phases of the Struggle
for New Territory.
Lured by stories of suddeI Riches,
Men Have Flocixed In from All
Parts of the WorId-Odd
Incidents.

For ten years, more or less, say from
1874 to 1884, and later than this in the
northern range, there was universal
prosperity and plenty of money; to be
cowman meant being a small, but
powerful king with princely. king
dom, the boundaries of which were set
by precedent and by the honor Of GUS
tomas far as a man on horseback
could see, and by water-as firmly al if
concentrated and title-deeded. There
was no rent, and virtually no taxes TO
pay. A man might own a hundred
thousand cattle, and not an acre of
land, though reclaimed range rights"
to $4,000 acres, and enforced those
rights with blood and iron, writes Ray
Stannard Baker, in Century.
Apparently this was new sort of
free life in which man had risen above
the old slow rules of thrift. 1t was
simple business; turn the cattle to
grass, and when money was needed,
round them up and sell them.
But the lucky dog sometimes had
difficulty in enjoying his bone in peace.
Lured by the stories of sudden riches
in the cattle country, other men, as
bold and hardy as the first, focked in
from all parts of the world, and began.
raising big and little herds. The build
ing of the railroads across the CONT
nent stimulated immigration; the
great Texas boom followed the COM
pletion of the Texas Pacific railroad
in 1888. At first the early corners well
coined the new rangers, sold them Gao
tie at exorbitant prices, chuckled at
their innocence, allowed them to come
in on the ranges, and grew richer and
richer. There were times when Texas
steers, big and little, brought $25 each
on the range. But the tide swelled,
and the cattle continued to increase
enormously. Presently the first real
settlers, the "nesters" of Texas, who
wished to fence the land for farms,
appeared in numbers, and the early
corners, the original cowboys, began
to chafe. who's elbowing me?" they
inquired, and there was prompt and
effective shooting, and the wholesale
cutting of the new fences.
Many good men lay down in the hot
sand, never to rise again. But that,
bad as it was, did not tell the whole
story OF destruction. If cattle had
been killed instead of men, the trouble
might have been averted. but the herds
went on multiplying until they covered
all the range, giving it no rest winter
or summer. Each cowman scrambled
for all he could get; he argued that if
he did not take the grass his neighbor
would. And who cared a rap for the
future? Life was short and money
tangible. At first there had been
enough grass to support one steer to
every two acres of land; in haff dozen
years a steer did we'll to make his liv-
ing on five acres. After that the ratio
steadily widened. So great was the
struggle for new territory that whole
herds of cattle sometimes went 20
miles or more TO water and then back
again, galloping every step, and work
ing hard between times to get enough
from the failing ranges to keep life
within their lean carcasses. And to-
day there are many parts Of the range
that will not support ten cattle to the
square mile, one steer to every GA acres,
and it is a good range indeed that will
feed a steer to every 20 acres. There
are whole ranges in Texas, New Mex
lea and Arizona, once rich beyond be-
lief, that are completely deserted and
given over to the desert.