Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-01-13
Dry Land Homesteader Era Fades Into
State History; Many Sections Reseeding
By GLENDoLIN DAMON WAGNER

w part in her history. Looking
back upon that brief history
we note successive crises, followed by
i crucial changes in the development Of
the west. From its beginning Montana
has held out promises of wealth. Long
before Horace Greedy advised: go
west, young man." young men were
rushing westward in search of adven-
ture, or gold, or 4 home, lured by
fabulous tales of wealth, first through
furs, then mines, then cattle and
sheep, and finally through wheat.
The earliest significant history of
Montana is linked with the fur trade.
From the time of John Jacob Aston,
eastern capitalists laid the founda-
tons OF immense wealth, through
MontanaS valuable skins. Among the
young fur hunters and fur traders
were some with canny eye open to
possibilities OF wealth in the wild west
aside from any associated with the fur
trade: A few saw the horses and cattle
thriving miraculously during long,
snow-ridden winters on sparse vegeta-
ton and began to realize the eXcep-
tional nutritive value of the coarse
bunchgraSS that the animals paved
through the snow to get
Texans Recognize Value
Experienced cattlemen from Texas
IN particular recognized the wealth
Montana territory was offering them
over its miles of seeming barren, sun
Drowned wastes. Presently herds were
being driven up the long, Texas trail,
and the era of the cattleman, with his
broncS, his cowboys. his roundups, his
huge ranches, began.
The first recorded drive of cattle out
Of Montana was made by the Oren-
Lake city in October, 1868. In 1874
James Forbe won distinction by max
ing the first shipment east from Mon
tana, via Cheyenne, then the nearest
railroad point. Before the advent of
the Northern Pacific herds were driven
from the ranges distances of 600 to 900
miles to shipping centers. Yet, despite
the difficulties which cattlemen must
face, hard winters, Indian menace,
cattle rustlers, long miles from rail-
roads, the cattle industry flourished
to astonishing proportions and thrived,
until the importance of the vast, wild
land was impressed upon the east.
Growing Cost Small
In 1876, in his centennial address at
Philadelphia, w. A. Clark reported:
mo portion of the great west is
more adapted to the profitable growth
Of animals than Montana territory.
There are, at present, about 10000
sheep and 145!OOO cattle grazing on
bunchgrass, and they pay handsomely
on the capital invested, for the cost
OF production Is small" The average
cost OF raising beef steers, per head,
per annum, was, in those days of wide
range and accessible waterholes. less
than dollar, which meant an aver
age profit of 40 percent. And so gradu-
ally. often painfully, Montana's history
was reached.
Practically coincidental with the
recognition of wealth in Montana's
sun-seared plains. came another start
ling discovery-that in the hills and
mountains and creeks, there was that
precious metal for which men, since
the beginning of civilization, have la
bored and fought and died-gold.
Quickly greedy hordes poured into
Montana from the east and farther
west. Long, faint trails were black, that
summer of 1865, with men and animals
vending their slow way into the land
of gold. The eternal silence of plains
and hills was shattered by pick and
shovel, by the sluicing of water through
gravel. And the sight of rough, beard
ed, booted men, squatting by creek
banks, patiently stirring water and
gravel in handmade colanders, strain
ing hopeful eyes for tiny, yellow specks,
meant that still another eventful
epoch in Montana's history had begun.
Few Found Riches
Very few of those pioneer gold
seekers found what they sought. Most
of them eventually returned to their
homes, empty handed. A few, because
they were too poor to return, or be-
cause they noted still other possibili-
ties for wealth in this new land, re-