THE EARLY WESTERN RANGE 



25 



The stockmen of the West were a prodigal as well as 

 a restless lot. With an almost unlimited world in front 

 of them they resented the crowding that began to de- 

 velop, and there was a constant pushing forward fur- 

 ther and further out into the prairies. They disputed 

 with the Indian and the buffalo for the occupancy of the 

 land, with the result that always follows where the 

 white man comes. The red man, and his friend the 

 buffalo, slowly melted away and eventually the advance 

 guard from the far eastern coast met the tide of pioneers 

 from the west coast. In the Southwest they met along 

 the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Colorado, while to 

 the Northwest those that crowded over the Cascades in 

 Oregon and Washington met the advancing tide from the 

 East pouring over the backbone of the Rockies, and 

 the frontier was no more. 



The Inevitable Happens. Not an acre of the land 

 was left unoccupied, and ranges that for permanent 

 and regular use would have been overstocked with 

 a cow to every 100 acres were loaded until they were 

 carrying one to every ten. Into western Kansas, 

 Nebraska, eastern Colorado, out into the Red Desert 

 country of Wyoming and Utah, up across Montana and 

 the two Dakotas clear to the Canadian line, they pres- 

 sed in their mad search for grass. No one provided any 

 feed for the winter, the owners preferring to risk the 

 losses. Gradually the native grasses disappeared. As 

 fast as a blade of grass showed above the ground some 

 hungry animal gnawed it off. A few men sounded a 

 note of alarm, but the most of the owners declined to 

 realize the approaching disaster and drifted along in 

 their fancied opulence. 



Then came the inevitable. The winter of 1886 saw 



