254 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



On the other side of the Platte, on the Bijou, are the herds of the Patterson Brothers, 

 Reynolds, and John Hitson. These herds number 8,000 head of cattle, 6,000 of them 

 being beef-cattle. The Patterson Brothers are great cattle-raisers and dealers. They 

 own ranches on the Arkansas River, at Bent's Old Fort, and on the Pecos River, below 

 Fort Sumner, in New Mexico. They have handled hundreds of thousands of dollars' 

 worth of cattle in the last five years. 



John Hitsou is another of the great cattle-raisers and dealers in New Mexico. His 

 herds are numbered by the thousands. His operations are transferred to Colorado now, 

 and so are those of the Patterson Brothers. On Box Elder Creek, which is a branch of 

 the Cache' la Poudre, is the ranch and stock range of Mr. Whitcombe, an old settler of 

 Colorado. He has 2,000 stock cattle and some fine blooded bulls. This range and 

 shelter are perfect. 



Reed & Wyatt, on the Platte, nearer Denver, have 1,000 head of stock and beef 

 cattle. They are about adding largely to their number. 



Farwell Brothers, Greeley, have 200 head of fine American cattle. 



Baily, on the south side of the Platte from Greeley, has 400 head of Durham and 

 Devon stock,* and 2,000 sheep. 



Geary, on the Platte, has 300 head of American cattle. 



The Lemons, at Greeley, have 400 head of American stock. In this neighborhood 

 Ashcraft has 400 head of American cattle ; Munson has 800 head of cattle and 3,000 

 sheep. Up the Cache" la Poudre are twenty large stock -raisers. 



On the Big and Little Thompsons there are some five herds of blooded stock. 



After youleave Evans and go south toward Denver, the whole country seems one 

 pasture covered with stock. I traveled over this same ground in 1869, and I am sure 

 there are fully three times as many cattle here now as then. There are hundreds of 

 farmers on the Lone Tree Creek, Cach6 la Poudre, Big and Little Thompson's Creeks, 

 St. Vrain's, and the many other streams which flow from the mountains to the Platte, 

 who have from one hundred to one thousand head of cattle, a description of whose herds 

 and grazing grounds would take too much space in an article of this kiud. 



Shipments of cattle West. — Colorado has sold an immense number of cattle this season 

 to Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. It is safe to say that Montana will receive 

 twenty thousand head of cattle during the season of 1870, four-fifths of which are from 

 Colorado. Many have gone to Utah, Nevada, and Idaho from the same source, and yet, 

 ten years ago, the commercial and stock-growing people of the East did not know that 

 Colorado contained a thousand acres of grass land. To-day they have no idea of the 

 magnitude of her grazing resources. 



Leaving Colorado we find some herds along the base of the Black Hills. 



Xorth of Cheyenne— H. Kelly, on the " Chug," has 500 stock cattle. He sold 100 head 

 of American beeves at $70 per head. 



Messrs. Ward & Bullock, at Fort Laramie, have 200 head of American cattle. 



Adolph Cuny, so long a resident on the North Platte, has a herd of 1,000 stock cattle 

 betweeu Forts Laramie and Fetterman. 



Between Cheyenne and Sidney, on the line of the railroad, there a*rc several small 

 herds. At Sidney are the Moore Brothers, who have 12,000 sheep and lambs, and 1,400 

 cattle ; 400 of the latter are American and very fine. The sheep sheared an average of 

 five pounds of wool per head last spring. They are graded merinos, and are in fine 

 condition. There is no disease among them. The Moore Brothers were ranchmen on 

 the South Platte prior to the day of railroads, and are about returning to that stream 

 for grazing. Their place is the valley station of olden fame on the stage road. Above 

 them, on the Platte, at the old "Junction," Mr. Mark Boughton has 2,500 stock cattle. 

 He has as fine a cattle range as there is in the world, not excluding the Pampas of 

 South America nor table lands of Australia. 



Farther down the Platte, at O'Fallon's Bluffs, on the north side of the South Platte, 

 Creighton & Parks have 3,500 stock cattle, 400 of which are Durhams. They range 

 twenty miles up and down the Platte. Near them, below, is the herd of Mr. Keith, of 

 North Platte Station, who has about 1,000 head. 



Mr. M. H. Brown has 500 head of stock cattle and beeves near the same place. 



Across the Platte, in the neighborhood of McPherson, the Bent Brothers have 1,000 

 head of stock cattle, and will add another 1,000 the present season. 



Messrs. Carter & Coe have a large herd near there, which numbers near a thousand. 



Mr. Benjamin Gallagher has 1,200 head at the old Gihnan ranche, twelve miles from 

 McPherson. 



Progress this season. — More real progress has been made in stock matters west of the 

 Missouri this season than in all time before. We have not only added to the numbers of 

 our herds and flocks, but we have given confidence to all our stock-growers and to 

 eastern people in the permanency and profit of grazing in the Trans-Missouri country. 



We are now in easy reach of eastern markets. The railways are landing the heaviest 

 cattle in Chicago from' the Rocky Mountains at $9 and $10 per head; we can sell thou- 



