Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1918-01-17
1000 FAT CATTLE
WITHOUT OWNERS
HOW TO GET THEM HAS NEVER
( BEEN SOLVED
Places Where They Breed, Grow
Sleek and Die are inaccessible
q, Most Of limo.

~ Most Of Time.
Omaha, Neb.--In these days, while
q beefsteak as big as twobit
piece costs quarter, there are 1000
fat sleek cattle-that belong to no
man in all the world--in the wilds Of
the Powder River brakes in Wyon1-
ing. These cattle are anyOne's meat,
That is, If one can get them. They
have no brand. They have belonged
to no one for dozen generations. No
ranchman has been able to get his
brand upon them, and no cowboy has
been able to round them UP. There
is good reason for this. The Powder
River brakes are wild jungles of
scrub oak, umderbrush and tangled
vines growing over a labyrinth, ver-
. table network, or meshwork of can.
yons, gulches, and ravines.
For hall century ranchers in the
Northwest have been losing cattle
every year in this wild country. Each
year as. the roundup approached some
OF the wilder of the herd scanlT cred
into the brakes and disappeared.
Cowboys could not follow them far,
for it is impossible for a horscman
to make his way far into the brakes.
Here in these wilds these cattle
have bred for generations. Naturally,
as the cattle that inhabited these
parts began to regard this as their
home, and as they became more and
more wild, they did not venture far
from the brakes at any time. The
calves kept to the underbrush and
were never branded. They in turn
grew up and bred again calves that
were never branded, until today a
great herd Of cattle, wild, fleet Of
foot, yet sleek with good feeding.
wander around in the shady gull
lies, and never are shared into
packing house.
Byron McKinnahan, ranchman Of
that section of Wyoming, has for
years studied the problem with a
view to devising some means of get
ting these cattle. Occasionally we
are able to shoot one for meat when
we are on the roundup" he said;
"but to drive one away from the
brakes and get him into the regular
herd is impossible"
Mr.. McKinnahan Is in Omaha now
comforting with the packinghouse Of
ficials here, seeking to devise some
plan whereby the cattle could be kill
ed, so that the carcasses could be
shipped to the Omaha packing houses
In refrigerator cars in time to be han
Of
packing. He believes that by wait
ing until winter, when there is much
snow in the brakes, he can throw a
force of his men into them afoot and
equipped with rifles and lot of bur.
rows thus be able to draw out the
meat. He believes that by making a
lot of crude sleds of poles, after the
fashion the Indians followed years
ago, he can have the cattle shot, bled
and dragged out by means of the bur-
rows.
"If we can find the holes where
these cattle water in winter" he says,
we can lay for them there and shoot
down hundreds of them in a short
time. Then by throwing in a big
force of men and burrows We can
haul out the quarters, load them In
refrigerator cars and rush them ia
Omaha. We will have to choose cold
weather, SO that the meat will moi
begin to spoil before we get it on the
cars.
ut is high time that something
should be done with these cattle
Meat has gone so high that 1t is q
shame these thousands Of cattle
should continue to breed, grow up and
die alone like rats without anyone
getting the benefit of their meat"