Omaha daily bee., 1909-06-27

MAfltNa4I great success COlnDlOCu with
&2@2D that of their total failure. This
county, In a state OF nature, was a land OF
hooks and corners. Into these hooks the
oattlemen seemed very generally to have
nestled. The romance Of the early cattle
Industry In Custer county cannot be nut
into words or painted or sent by mail, but
something Of it broods there still. Men
cannot make It or entirely destroy II. II
is In the air, and to supplement It and add
to 1t, is the feeling that the past has not
yet quite zone away. There Is a quaint
ness often lowering over decay and ruin,
and no locality is so subject TO such a
spell as the deserted home of the cattle
man. The shattered remains of the old
sod house is all that remains to tell it's
story, We have never made anything like
1t, and we have never in a single instance
como as near as these COW men of the
plains did to the suiting Of a building to
the surrounding landscape. 1t fits its place
amid the vastness OF the plains country
that can never be really changed by any
effort Of civilization.
But when you are gone again, IL you
have seen the country Alright, your mental
picture will be completest when you re-
member the early range as one unbroken
prairie. One of the strongest Individual
ties on earth is the cattleman. Amid all
the newness of American life he retains
his sod house and dilapidated corral along,
apart, separate and individuallzed. Who
ever would undertake aught Of these by
gone days must come quickly II he wishes
to Judge by that surest index. the homes
OF these people. These first men to occupy
Custer county were doomed to disappoint-
ment. All things that were not intended
have come and all that were hoped for
are gone.
The founders of this county looked far
into the future, but they could not read
fate, and there was nothing else to read
Theirs has been a history strangely min
gled with that OF sunshine and romance
and hardship. which goes everywhere with
the cattle industry. No LAND the cattleman
found in all his aimless wanderings suited
him and was made for him so nearly as
Custer county. What became OF the great
herds and the many herders, is a ques-
ton often asked but never answered. If
there are diaries. journals, personal mar
%ratives, they are lost. There seems to be
in the minds of some OF the old pioneers q
ms Va atNiNlt ~ hhhN thNg GS bOhOt
but that they ever came.
In the early settlement Of Custer county
there was but one occupation Of sufficient
importance to raise II to the dignity that
would Justify its being designated a BUSH
ness. That was the cattle industry. While
the orea of Custer county, then, as now.
was 2,592 square miles, or larger than the
state OF Delaware, and more than twice
the area OF Rhode Island, this vast area
wac claimed by a few ranchmen who In q
way occupied the greater part OF IT,.
TIL great advantages OF this county as a
grazing country first began to attract at.
tentlon in 1869. Texas was then the great.
est breeding gRound for cattle and horses
in the United States, and probably In thS
world, but IT was without means of rams
portation. and the stockman was com
pellCd to trail his cattle many hundred
miles from there to the railroad.
The principal shipping point in NebraskS
for IN, Panhandle territory was ogalalla
Tho cattle were brought to this point by
the thousands. There were probably a
times as many as 1901 900 cattle held on tn,
ranges In the country surrounding Ogalalla
awaiting shipment and sale. Many cattle
brought to the railroad from Texas wer,
wintered in the adjacent territory, becaus'