FIRST HEREPORDS ON THE RANGE 719 



The Prairie Cattle Co. — This corporation began 

 operations by buying in 1880 and 1881 the herds on 

 three different ranges, with considerable bodies of 

 watered lands in each case. One of the first pur- 

 chases was that known as the JJ herd from the 

 Jones Bros. This herd ranged in southeastern Col- 

 orado, from the Arkansas River down to the neutral 

 strip, now in Oklahoma, and should not be confused 

 with the JJ herd of Adair-Goodnight origin. The 

 herd known as the Crosselle was purchased from 

 Hall Bros., whose cattle ranged from the top of the 

 Dry Cimarron down as far south as the Canadian 

 Eiver. The herd known as the LIT, purchased from 

 Littlefield, ranged in the northwest corner of the 

 Panhandle of Texas, with headquarters at Tascosa 

 on the Canadian Eiver. At that time the country 

 was unfenced, and while these cattle were run in 

 separate divisions during some winters they drifted 

 so far as to occasionally overlap one another. But 

 they were always brought back to their respective 

 ranges in the spring. 



When the Joneses and the Halls started their 

 herds they had unlimited range with abundance of 

 grass. The buffalo were about gone and the cattlemen 

 were just beginning to realize what a splendid thing 

 it was to have unlimited free grass and water. The 

 range was lightly stocked, the cattle were not dis- 

 turbed, and the result was that they did well and 

 their owners prospered. It has been claimed that 

 when the Halls originally went to the Crosselle, a 

 herd of 1,500 head was turned loose in the fall of the 



