THE GRASS LANDS 145 



By 1880 the cattle kingdom was going full blast. There were 

 several reasons for this. People in the East and in Germany, 

 Scotland, and England had money to invest in the cattle indus' 

 try. The railroads were able to carry the cattle to market. Colt's 

 invention of the six-shooter had enabled the people who lived 

 on the range to conquer the raiding parties of the Comanches, 

 Apaches, and Navajos. There seemed to be plenty of free 

 government land for gracing. 9 



The cattle industry had spread north and west from Texas 

 over the Great Plains. Cowboys drove the great herds from 

 summer to winter range, from range to the railroads at Dodge 

 City or Abilene, Kansas, over the Chisholm Trail. 



The whole structure of this industry depended on three 

 things, the market for beef, grass, and water. The market, with 

 few exceptions, held up fairly well until 1885. Grass everyone 

 took for granted. Water was taken wherever you could get it. 



It was the struggle for water that marked the beginning of 

 the end of the cowboy period of range history. A rancher 

 would settle along a river with the idea of providing water 

 for his herd. As other ranchers moved in, the first rancher 

 would claim more and more of the river in order to protect his 

 water supply. With the invention of barbed wire, the rancher 

 had for the first time a cheap fencing material. This meant 

 that he could fence off a piece of land along the river for 

 himself. The Homestead Act then allowed him 160 acres. 

 But there was nothing in the law to prevent a rancher from 

 having each of his cowhands claim a homestead of 160 acres 

 and turn it over to his employer. 



Thus each rancher scrambled for the river and creek shores 

 and the water holes. As the sheepmen and more cattle ranchers 

 began to move in, the older ranchers fenced in land whether 

 or not they had any claim to it. Soon it became a race to see 

 who could fence in the most government land. In Colorado two 



9 Webb, op. cit., p. 234. 



