Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-03-09

seek shelter, and resulted in thou
sands of cattle making their temper
airy home in the then dreaded sand
hills.
Mr.. Newman had over 5000 head
go through. Nothing could be done
just then, which, of course, caused
much anxiety to the owners of the
herds.
Billy Irwin, our foreman, sug-
gested to Mr. Newman that if he be
allowed to select his men and horses
he would undertake to gather the
cattle. The arrangement was made
and my partner and l were selected
as two of the II to invade the dread
ed land. An old government trail
leading from Kearney, Neb., to the
Black Hills, led through these hills,
but ran mostly through the valleys,
away from the rough hills and had
been the means of several people
pershing, who had drifted away
from the trail.
Re-encounter Terrible Storm.
Our outfit started on April IS,
1873. The second day out we en-
CONNECTED one of the worst biz
yards | have ever seen, which lasted
three days. All we could do was to
keep warm the best we could. The
only wood we had was what could
be hauled for cooking and what COW
and buffalo chips we could gather.
However, when the storm was over
we gathered up the saddle horses
and made another start and sent out
scouting parties. We soon began to
strike cattle perfectly contented in
their new home among the splendid
grass and water in the valleys, now
the great hay meadows of the west.
| remember we'll the first bunch
OF native cattle we struck; they
were as wild as any bunch of deer /
have ever seen. Irwin and l we're
the scouts on that day. We
rounded up this bunch of cattle and
then were two surprised cowboys.
Here we're cattle as fat as any ever
brought out of feed lot, unbranded
mavericks from ! to 4 years old. We
could hardly believe our own eyes.
Remember these cattle had no feed
except the native grass, and this
was the month of April after a ter
rife winter; one COW in this bunch
weighed not less than |, 400 pounds.
As we had been living on fat bacon
for several weeks, and not a very
good quality at that. l suggested ty-
ing down this cow for the night until
we could move up the outfit the
next day. No sooner said than both
of our lassos came down, the chase
started, and before long | was close
enough to throw the rope. / caught
the animal the first throw; one end
of this lasso was tied to the horn
of my saddle, and when the cow,
running at full speed, frightened the
rope, your humble servant, horse
and all, went into a heap; believe
me, there was some nixup. l drew
my revolver at once for defense, but
Irwin roped her by the hind feet.
1t did not take us long to hog-tie
her and back to camp we went. The
next day we moved the outfit,
butchered the cow, and we had
plenty of fat beef and smiles on our
faces.
Brought in 5000 Cattle.
We moved along, studied the lay
of the valleys and rough hills, and
began to gather thousands of cat
tie. We were away five weeks.
working day and night, brought in
5000 cattle that had drifted in from
our side. and 1000 head of natives
that had been in there for years, the
evidence of this being that we
brought out 300 head Of unbranded
mavericks from / to 4 years old.
These were awarded to Mr.. New
man by our crew, the rule being in
those days that the mavericks be-
longed to the man on whose range
they were found. There was no one
that cared to dispute this right.
The news of this trip spread all
through the west, and cowmen came
from everywhere to hear the story.
From that time on, instead of try
ing to keep cattle out of the sand
hills in the winter time, they we're
thrown in. The country, not only
in The sand hills, but all over that
section. shortly afterwards began to
settle up with the best blood of our
country; splendid homes. farms,
schools and churches. In fact.
everything necessary to build up a
great Christian civilization stands
there today, not only wonderful
asset in wealth, but everything noble
greets us. This has been done in 30
years. What will the next 40 years
bring forth?