irrigated pasture, therefore, it is probably underestimated. 

 The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation 

 (DNRC) (1986) estimated that approximately 411,000 acres were 

 irrigated in 1980 in seven Clark Fork subbasins. However, 

 this figure reflects conditions during the peak of irrigation 

 development in the early and middle 1970s, and likely 

 overestimates current conditions. 



Cattle ranching in the upper Clark Fork drainage started 

 in the late 1850s when several enterprising men began 

 rounding up stray animals that were abandoned by settlers on 

 the Oregon Trail. They wintered the trail-worn cattle in the 

 Beaverhead and Deer Lodge valleys, then herded them back to 

 the Oregon Trail in the spring, where they traded one fresh 

 animal for two trail-weary ones. Sizeable herds were built 

 up in this manner, and other stockmen moved into the area in 

 the late 1850s. Hundreds of cows grazed in the upper Clark 

 Fork valleys by the mid-1860s. By the early 1870s, the 

 mountain valley ranges became overcrowded and overgrazed, 

 and there was increasing competition from dairymen and 

 farmers. Although the Deer Lodge Valley continued to support 

 substantial herds, many stockmen began moving their herds 

 north and east onto the plains (Horstman 1984) . 



In subsequent years, the cattle industry endured various 

 setbacks, including loss of livestock attributed to pasture- 

 lands contaminated by Anaconda Smelter emissions, severe 

 droughts, hard winters, overgrazing, and depressed markets. 

 However, cattle production is still the major focus of 

 agriculture in the basin today. Although the number of 

 ranches and the number of persons employed in agriculture 

 have steadily declined in the last few decades, the size of 

 farms and ranches and their productivity have generally 

 increased. 



A sheep industry was also present in the upper Clark 

 Fork region, beginning in the early days of the mining camps. 

 There were more than 5,000 sheep in Deer Lodge County by 

 1875. Operations expanded in the 1890s, and by the 1950s, 

 Deer Lodge was the Rambouillet sheep capital of the world. 

 However, large scale sheep operations ceased after the mid- 

 1950s when Australian wool producers began to dominate the 

 markets (Horstman 1984) . 



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