FIRST HEREFORDS ON THE RANGE 701 



ing references to a few of the firms, individuals and 

 corporations that figured most conspicuously in the 

 movement that placed the "white faces" firmly 

 upon the western map. 



On the Northern Range. As late as the early 

 '80 's the "white faces" were not much in evidence 

 in the northwest. Around Cheyenne there was con- 

 siderable of the blood, but apart from that vicinity 

 probably not 5 per cent of the northern herds were 

 at that date crossed by Hereford bulls. The great 

 bulk of the cattle in Montana and Wyoming had 

 either come direct from the Pacific Coast or from 

 Texas. Numbers of these had been and were still 

 being crossed with Shorthorn bulls. 



A. H. Swan was one of the first to introduce the 

 Hereford blood upon the Wyoming range. His firm, 

 Swan Bros., paid Mr. Miller $10,000 for forty head 

 of bulls in the spring of 1878. A second lot of fifty 

 head followed not many months later. They had 

 previously had some of the blood from Culver and 

 Mahony of Colorado and Wyoming. Mr. Swan's 

 was a strong personality, and he had a big following ; 

 his example in adopting the Hereford was quickly 

 followed throughout all that vast country stretch- 

 ing away from the Union Pacific Railway to the 

 Canadian border. 



A meteoric record, that of Alex. Swan. His quick 

 rise to apparent affluence when fortune smiled upon 

 his ventures on the open range, his promotion of 

 the big Scotch company that still bears 'his name 

 after years of vicissitudes, his plunging in lands 



