The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-30
DYNAMITING SHEEP.
Cowboys Throw Explosives Among
the Huddled Animals They Hate.

The great secret of the fortunes made
in the stock industry in the last few
years has been free range. Over a vast
territory, extending from the open plain
of Texas up through Oklahoma, Kan
Sas, eastern Colorado Nebraska and
Wyoming to the states along the north
erne border. reached unending leagues of
grass Most of it even went to waste
because there was none to take it. On
this the herds and fOckS fed, and there
was plenty for all. But the settlers
pushed further into the west; Oklahoma
added other areas of Indian land; irri-
cation took from the land at the base
of the foothillS-the stockman found
that he was being limited in his free
pasture. He tried to drive out the set
tier, but in vain; prosecutions and the
obstruction OF crops were met by laws
like the "twO-mile limit statute keep
ing the agriculturist safe. The sheep
man went with his flock and took
the range as he came to 1.-THE cattle
man could not follow, for the cattle
would not eat after the sheep. So the
cowboys declared war on the Shepherds
and sought to limit their range To
some extent this has been done; but the
conflict is bitter, resulting in bloodshed
and deeds of intOlerable crueltv-nor is
it yet ended. 1t is tempting for the
sheepman to move to new pastures at
the risk of attack, even though he
knows that a cattleman has long been
in possession and will fight to maintain
his place; for it is well understood that
the range is open to all.
A western authority says that in the
last ten years 600. 600 sheep have been
Wantonly killed by COWBOYS at a loss to
the owners of S2,000,000. 1t is also esti-
mated-no one can tell surely, for all
the tragedies of the range do not come
TO nght-that 500 man killings have an
nua11y accompanied the sheep killings.
Some times the settlers whose homes are
threatened, make common cause with
the cattlemen and join in the slaughter
Only last July a band of masked men.
mounted, killed the herders of several
thousand sheep in central Wyoming and
killed thousands of the sheep. In add
ton, $1,000 sheep, which were near by
were left without herders and were scat
tered on the hills, resulting in further
loss. Rlf1emen surround f1ockS and kill
every sheep, driving off the herders A
flock of 5000 Angora goats was killed
in western Colorado in August The pa
pers of Oregon describe the terrible de-
vastation produced by dynamite thrown
among the huddled bands of sheep, the
explosion ending the existence of whole
tiocks, and sometimes killing the shep-
herds as well. The cattlemen throw
these deadly explosives from some
height, or charge on horseback into the
frightened fiocks for their scheme of
wrath. Flocks have been driven into
narrow canyons and dubbed to death:
they have been hurled over precipices and
destroyed. One man fought the battle
for years. finally. after losing $4,000
sheep, giving up the range for which he
commended.
The settler who ''homesteads'' a claim
in the edge of the free range has one
great terror-what if the fiocks or herds
should come. He knows that the crops
so carefully tended would go, the garden
would be made desolate. He has re-
course through the law, to be sure, but
in the wilder portion of the west it is
sometimes a slow process
Recently the government has issued an
order that the sheep must be kept off the
forest reserves, the last refuge of the wan
dering focks and their worried owners.
These were the only lands on which the
cattle were not generally grazed, so the
sheep were turned in. But they destroyed
the shrubbery in their efforts to gain sus-
stop such practice. There seemed to be
no choice but to try conclusions with the
cettlemen again, and hostilities opened
with renewed vigor- The miners and ca MP
pers and hunters try to keep stock out of
the mountain parks, and the boundaries
constantly grow less for the wanderingS
of the f1ocks and herds. The range is be-
tured, and, in the opinion of expert stock
man. does not today give more than half
the SuStenance that 1t did decade 60
various plans are proposed to renew it,
but they are as vet in embryo. and do
not help the man with huge hocks of
must be a more extensive leasing or own
ership of the grazing lands, and the rights
of possession must be obeyed Until that
time comes the conflict for the free feed
ing grounds will rage.-From the Outlook