CHAPTER XLIII 



SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN RANGE CONDITIONS 

 DURING THE PAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 



Changes in Range Areas. When sheepmen first went into the 

 West there was very little land which was permanently occupied. 

 Whenever the obtaining of sufficient range was a problem it con- 

 sisted chiefly in competing with cowmen whose rights could be 

 defined by no other than that shadowy and shaky term " priority " 

 or " previous occupation," yet these rights were defended to the 

 point of open conflict and not infrequently at the expense of human 

 life. But in the end the sheepmen were bound to gain occupation 

 of what was justly their share because it required less capital to 

 get into the sheep business than into the cattle business, and hence 

 more people were attracted to sheep, and they secured their range 

 through the advantage of superior numbers. In time, however, the 

 homesteaders, a more numerous class than the sheepmen, appeared 

 on the scene, too, and they were bound to triumph in occupying 

 land, not only because of superior numbers, but also because they 

 were armed with legal rights. 



When homesteaders became numerous the range began to change 

 to the disadvantage of sheepmen. The homesteader was a poor man 

 whose " claim " was his all, and he resented trespass to the point 

 of demanding payment for damages. He located on the lands hav- 

 ing water, and either forced sheepmen to find new supplies of water 

 by digging wells and building reservoirs or to hunt new range. Those 

 who thought themselves shrewd enough to hold large sections of 

 free range for all time by gaining ownership of the land on which 

 natural watering holes were located were in the end defeated by 

 homesteaders who settled on all the free lands around the water 

 holes. 



After the homesteader began to collect rents and damages, or 

 fenced his land entirely away from sheepmen, those in control of 

 state and railroad lands were in position to demand rentals for their 

 holdings. Then immense National Forests were created which 

 resulted in bringing vast areas under the control of the Federal 



425 





