• Ranching in the West: (449)– The earliest ranchers in the

American West were Spaniards who imported cattle from Spain in the 1500s.

– By the 1850s, Texans had interbred English Cattle with Spanish cattle to produce a new breed – the Texas Longhorn

– Texas Longhorn: although their meat was typically tough and stringy, longhorns were hardy, able to survive long distances on little water, and could live year-round on grass.

– Equally important , Longhorns were immune to Texas fever, a cattle disease carried my ticks

– The growth of eastern cities ensured an increasing demand for beef

• Ranching in the West: (449)– The Spanish also introduced

sheep ranching.– The Cowboys despised sheep

believing that they ate the roots of the grass and ruined it for the cattle

– Despite such conflicts, sheep ranching remained a profitable enterprise

• The Cattle Industry: (450)– The workers who took

care of a rancher’s cattle were known as cowboys.

– Cowboys worked hard: worked through all kinds of weather and made very little money.

• The Cattle Industry: (450)– The Cowboys: (450)

• Many cowboys were:

– Confederate veterans from the Civil War

– African Americans– Mexican– Mexican American

• The Cattle Industry: (450)– The Cowboys: (450)

• African American Cowboys

– African American Cowboys escaped most of the discrimination of the postwar era

– A few African American Cowboys became trail bosses

– African American cowboys were, however, more likely to be assigned unpleasant tasks

• The Cattle Industry: (450)– Life on the Trail:

• Moving the cattle from Texas to the rail lines in Missouri and Kansas posed a major problem for cattle ranchers.

• To reach the railroads, cowboys herded as many as 3,000 cattle on long drives

• Long drives were overland treks that covered hundreds of miles and lasted several months

• The Trail usually ended in Kansas because cattle in Missouri were not immune to Texas fever.

• The Cattle Industry: (450)– Life on the Trail:

• On a typical long drive, a trail boss managed a crew of about 10 cowboys.

• Managing a herd was a tough job:

– River crossings, where swift currents might drown hundreds of animals, proved very hazardous

– The worst danger was a stampede: almost any unexpected sound could panic the cattle

• Cattle Towns: (450-451)– Every long drive ended at a

railhead, a town located along a railroad, where brokers bought cattle to ship east on railroad cars

– Early cattle towns consisted of little more than a general store, a hotel or boardinghouse, a railroad depot, and a stockyard.

– Prosperous cattle towns attracted businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, and their families

• Ranching: (452)– The US government

converted more American Indian territory into public land, cattle ranching then spread west.

– The government allowed cattle ranchers to use public land as open ranges: or free grazing land.

– The access to open ranges helped make cattle ranching profitable

• Ranching: (452)– Ranch Profits: (452)

• Although some families established ranches, it was large investment companies for the most part that took advantage of the government’s offer of land – Open Ranges.

• Financed by eastern and European investors, these companies created huge ranches.

• Chicago investors owned the 3.5 million-acre XIT Ranch in the Texas panhandle

• Most ranchers did not own this much land. Instead, they concentrated on buying range rights, or water rights to ponds and rivers

• These rights gave ranchers access to scarce water as well as ownership of the land around it

• With range rights, ranchers could stop farmers and ranchers from coming onto their private property and using the water

• Ranching: (452)– Ranch Life: (452)

• Both cattle and sheep ranches demanded hard labor from ranch families.

• Women did the housework, cooked for all hired cowboys, and helped out with fence-mending, herding, and other chores.

• Because ranches were so far apart, ranchers became very lonely

• The End of the Cattle Boom: (453-454)

– The cattle boom lasted about 20 years.

– Several factors led to the Cattle Boom’s end:

1. Ranchers eager for large profits crowded the open range with too many cattle; prices crashed in 1885 as supply far exceeded demand

2. Ranchers faced increasing competition for the use of the open range; used barbed wire

3. Bad weather dealt the final blow to the open range• Blizzards – cattle died and were found

frozen; some ranchers lost 90% of their herd

• The End of the Cattle Boom: (453-454)– In 1874 Illinois farmer Joseph

Glidden patented barbed wire, a cheap fencing material.

– Ranchers initially refused to use barbed wire, fearing it would injure the cattle

– By the 1880s, cattle ranchers and farmers had erected miles of barbed wire across the open range to control access to land and water.