Laurel outlook., 1945-09-05
Wild Horses Are
Leaving Plains
Mustangs Once Gave Color
To Romantic Life on the
Western Ranges.

SALT LAKE CITY. - Wild horses
the colorful, freedom loving mus
tangs of the wide open spaces-are
disappearing from most of the west
ern range lands.
Like the buffalo and elk at the
turn of the century, they are be-
coming fewer and fewer. The cause
is not mems inhumanity and lack OF
foresight; depletion of the mustang
herds is proceeding according to
plan.
Wild horses merely are stage sets
on the western scene. They perform
no useful function. Instead, they eat
fodder that can be put to better pur-
pose in feeding shorthorn steers
and sheep.
Meat is more important in war
time than stage settings. Besides,
few tourists ever glimpsed the swift
mustangs. They roamed the widest,
most inaccessible areas. So in
March, 1913, an order closing all
federal grazing districts in the 10
western states to wild horses was
signed.
Clearing the range of wild horses
was more difficult than signing a
paper. At first, huge roundups were
organized. Chap-clad waddies, an
other fast disappearing specie of the
Old West, rode on week-long eXpedi-
tons into the bad lands bordering
the ranges. For it was there the
mustangs fled when pursued, says
the Chicago Tribune.
Many Got Away.
Riding fast horses and changing
them frequently, cowboys herded
the mustangs into dead end draws.
But the skittish creatures too often
overcame their. fear of man when
cornered and bolted through the
lines of waddies to freedom.
So this strategy gave way to a
plan of rounding up 10 or Is at a
time. Winged corrals were built,
sturdy and camouflaged, with the
entrance tunnels pointing outward
to wide mouths. Small planes and
ground forces worked together.
The planes '~'spooked" the mus
tangs, keeping them moving toward
the trap. Waddies drove occasional
strays into the herd.
When a score or so of mustangs
were bagged, trucks carried them
to shipping points for transportation
to disposal plants. They yielded
tankage for hogs, food for fox
farms, chickens, pets and such by
products as fats, hides, glue.
The more likely looking cayuses
yer cut out for saddle ponies or
for light farm work in the midwest.
There were few of the magnificent
stations famed in western stories.
Wild horses look gaunt beside well
fed farm stock. Their existence,
though free from mans dominance,
is governed by harder laws of ma
ture. And nature has no work in
centive such as man for preserv-
ing horses.
Fixtures of the Range.
But the mustangs are a hardy
breed. The wild horses of the range
- descendants of horses strayed,
abandoned, or stolen by Indians
from the Spanish conquerors of the
in their 10th century gold A..
hunting expeditions - have been
roaming the western plains for cen
turtles.
Their numbers increased rapidly
and, domesticated by the Indians
and later by the cowboy, the tough,
wiry animals played a large part in
he history of the west. =
C. l.. Forsling, grazing service ,
director, with headquarters in Salt =,
lake City, estimates there were }
lbout 100, 900 wild horses on federal }
'ange in the fall of 1912. The serv- I
ce reported 25,273 wild horses were
emoved in 1943. By June 80, 1914,
he bag had reached 77,163. :
There was room on. the range for ,
more cattle and sheep. }
The big roundup, in small seq 1
nents, continues. But the wild 4
orse will not soon be extinct. He's 4
ough. In the back country where
he breaks of deep cut rivers .
desert land, the herds :;
till run.