USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 56
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The only controversy to my mind is whether users in Colorado are to be al- lowed to develop their systems now or whether they are to be held up until some future time when this opinion is actually demonstrated to be sound.
The constructors of projects in Colorado are so sure that there is an ample water supply for all, that they are willing to go ahead at this time, construct their works and take the order of priority to which their construction and use will entitle them. The present attitude of the Government shows that it is not willing to take its order of priority as determined by construction and use or that it is determined to curtail private enterprise and to extend unnecessarily its field of operations.
(From the Report of the State Engineer of Colorado 1913-1914.)
TRANSFER OF WATER
The most fruitful source of litigation in recent years has been the attempt to transfer water from one canal to another. This has been permitted in Colorado
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
under our law and decisions and has subjected Colorado to severe criticism, not only with people outside the state but among our own people. These critics fail to realize the benefits to the state from the transfer of water from one canal to another. The right to transfer water is not in itself wrong; in fact the benefits to the state as a whole are great; the damage is to the individual. The decrees rendered under the laws of 1881 were defective in that while it fixed the rate of flow it did not fix the total amount to be diverted, that is the length of time for the diversion. In other words, a volume was attempted to be described and measured by only two dimensions. It is as reasonable to ask the price of lumber 4 x 4 inches without giving the length as it is to try to establish the value of a cubic foot of water per second without stating the number of seconds the water is to run. With the character of crops raised in the '60s and '70s, especially up to the introduction of alfalfa, about 1878, the period of diversion was short and large volumes were required for the irrigation of meadows and grains. The greatest demand for water was almost coincident with the greatest supply. With, however, the advent of alfalfa and subsequently the growing of late maturing crops, such as potatoes and beets, the irrigation period was extended from not to exceed sixty days to perhaps 180 days. Thus, the total volume diverted under a decree was three times as much under modern agricultural conditions as under the early agricultural conditions. The courts should have fixed not only the date of priority and the rate of flow, but should have fixed the total for each season, expressed either in terms of time or in terms of volume, such as the acre foot. Had the decrees read that a ditch had a priority of 1860 and was entitled to a flow of ten cubic feet per second limited to three acre feet per acre per an- num, enlarged use and excessive use would have been eliminated.
The transfer of water from land both less productive and requiring more water to better and more productive land requiring less water per acre, is ad- visable as a matter of public policy and should be permitted, nor should theo- retical, imaginary or small damage to individuals be allowed to prevent such transfer. Studying the history of the litigation in transfer cases, we find the courts apparently leaning first one way and then the other, and the litigants argu- ing from a specific case to a general proposition. Whatever criticism of either the courts or of our laws, the general result has been of great benefit to the state and we find that in almost every decade since 1860 Colorado has been first or second in development and increased acreage put under irrigation, and the conclusion is inevitable that our laws, customs and rulings have been good, are as good as those of any other state, and probably better in actual practice and ap- plication. Under other laws and other theories such as have been adopted by other states and which are much favored by "authorities," Colorado might have avoided some trouble and some litigation ; she might also, as in some other states, have accomplished less in consequence.
CHAPTER XXV
FROM RANGE DAYS TO THE THOROUGHBRED ERA
"HUNTING OUT" THE BUFFALO-BUYING UP THE BROKEN-DOWN FREIGHTING OXEN -CONDITION OF CATTLE INDUSTRY IN 1866-DISCOVERY OF GRAZING VALUES- TRAITS OF RANGE CATTLE-"MAVERICK" LEGISLATION-ROUNDING UP THE CAT- TLE THIEVES-SHIPMENTS OF CATTLE-RANGE CONDITIONS IN 1879 FOREIGN- ERS INVEST HEAVILY-EARLY STOCK-RAISING METHODS-THE FIGHT ON FENCING -PUBLIC LANDS COMMISSION REGULATES GRAZING ON PUBLIC DOMAIN-PASS- ING OF THE LAST GREAT HERD -- THE OLD FENCE LAWS-THE BREEDING OF HORSES -LARIMER'S EARLY SHEEP HISTORY-THE LAMB FEEDING INDUSTRY-THE FOUNDING OF A GREAT INDUSTRY-IN THE UNCOMPAHGRE-IN THE ROARING FORK VALLEY-THE COMING OF THE HEREFORD THE NATIONAL LIVE STOCK SHOW-THE STOCK YARDS AND THE PACKING INDUSTRY-ON THE WHITE RIVER AND ON THE BEAR-STOCK RAISING IN THE SAN LUIS VALLEY-LIVE STOCK STA- TISTICS-THE STATE CATTLE GROWERS' ASSOCIATION
"HUNTING OUT" THE BUFFALO
The live stock industry of Colorado began with the migrations along the Santa Fé Trail in the early years of the Nineteenth Century, for few caravans came without one or more milch cows, and many had oxen for freighting. At Bent's Fort, when it was the celebrated way station, the first herd of cattle kept for beef and milk, fed plentifully and bountifully upon the native buffalo and bunch . grasses of the country. This was also true a little later of Lupton's Fort.
Such was the beginning of the encroachment of domesticated live stock upon the domain of the buffalo in what is now Colorado.
Between 1826 and 1836, according to General Frémont, the buffalo roamed from Independence to the "Fishing Falls" of the Columbia River. By 1836 they began to diminish, and by 1840 they had abandoned all the waters of the Pacific north of Lewis's Forks. Five years later, according to Hollister, the "Buffalo wallow" had contracted to what was erroneously called "the Great American Desert," for, curiously enough, it "sustained nearly as many of these huge quad- rupeds as could stand upon it."
By 1867 the buffalo were confined largely to the Smoky Hill and Republican forks of the Kaw, rarely straggling on either to the Platte or Arkansas, within two hundred miles of the state line of Missouri, or the base of the mountains. Hollister, in his "History of Mines," written in 1867, says: "The number of robes annually traded for by the American, Hudson's Bay, and other fur com- panies, was ninety thousand, and this tells not half the story of their destruction.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
It will be seen that the vast herds of buffalo had passed away before the dis- covery of gold and silver in the Rocky Mountains. It is not certain that they were much fewer in 1866 than in 1856."
But later they seemed to have drifted westward again. "In a little more than three months," says a writer, "in the fall of 1874 over 50,000 buffalo hides were shipped from the stations on the Santa Fé road, and the total shipments on this and the Kansas Pacific aggregated 125,000. During the winter season of five months about two million pounds of buffalo meat were shipped to all parts of the country."
BUYING THE BROKEN-DOWN FREIGHTING OXEN
In 1867 the raising of stock had not yet become a great business for it was cheaper, at least in the Denver district, to buy and to make beef of the train oxen. These usually arrived at Denver in June, very thin, and were held cheaply by their owners. In 1866, 5,000 head of this stock was bought by Iowa farmers to be driven home and fed during the winter.
Samuel Hartsel, one of the most prominent of Colorado's cattlemen, tells of buying in 1860 and 1861 the broken-down animals that were brought in, for $10 and $20, then fattening them and selling them for $90 to $100 each. In 1861 Duke Green and Ed Shook brought in a bunch of good Shorthorns from Oska- loosa, Iowa, and Hartsel bought these and was so successful that he determined to go back and bring a larger herd to Colorado. He left Denver in 1864 and re- turned in 1866. Of this journey he has written as follows, throwing interesting sidelights on the difficulties of bringing herds across the plains :
"I reached Clay County, Missouri, early in the summer of 1864 and bought 148 cows and two bulls from Tom Gordon, a well-known Shorthorn breeder of those days. Gordon was the grandfather of Gordon Jones, the well-known banker of Denver.
"I crossed the Missouri River at Fort Leavenworth, ferrying my cattle across. At Fort Leavenworth I purchased a team of oxen-one of the largest and finest pair I ever saw. I paid $200 for them, which was a good price even in those days. Then I started west intending to take the old Santa Fé Trail at the Ar- kansas River. It was getting along into the fall and when I reached Leroy, , Karisas, I decided to winter my herd there.
"In one attack, near Cottonwood Creek on the Santa Fé Trail, we lost two men killed and in another attack, west of Fort Arberry, five were killed. The Indians were on the warpath everywhere and we were in constant danger. At Fort Arberry one of my best bulls gave out with sore feet. I made an arrange- ment with the quartermaster at the fort to winter the bull and deliver him at Pueblo the next year with the first ox-train going through, and agreed to pay him $100 for the bull when he was delivered. He was delivered all right the next summer. That bull was in service in my herd until he was eighteen years old.
"At Spring Bottom, a place near Bent's Fort on the Arkansas, I decided to leave my herd for the winter. There was plenty of feed there and soldiers enough in the vicinity to make the herd safe. I was anxious about things at home, so after fixing my herd for the winter, I continued on to South Park, where I
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
spent the winter. Early in the spring I returned after the herd and got them through into the South Park early in the summer without any further trouble.
"I consider that I had the best herd of cattle in the Rocky Mountains. They were all pure bred and as I had the South Park to myself to graze them there was no chance for them to become mixed with any other cattle. Two-thirds of them were pure white and most of the balance were roans. One of my bulls was pure white and the other a roan. There were not ten head of red cattle in the whole herd."
CONDITION OF. CATTLE INDUSTRY IN 1866
The condition of the cattle industry in 1866 is thus outlined by Hollister :
"Cattle bred on the plains mature younger than elsewhere. Fall calves are not checked in their growth by the winter as in the east, and they commonly be- come mothers at eighteen months of age. It is estimated by those in the business that there are one hundred thousand head of horses and cattle in the territory, and there are large flocks of sheep in the southern portion. These sheep were never shorn until 1866, and but few were then, from the lightness of the fleece, the coarseness of the wool, and the distance to market. The Mexican sheep is small and hardy, economical in its use of wool, wearing merely a little hempen stuff on its back. No pains were ever taken in breeding, and the article can barely be called a sheep, either in quality of mutton or wool, or in fecundity. The first cross of an improved breed increases the size, doubles the yield of wool, and restores prolific power, indicating that as a basis for extensive sheep-, breeding, the native stock, if we may so call them, cannot be excelled. * * The first cost of cows is high, from $60 to $100, but their keeping amounts to very little."
DISCOVERY OF GRAZING VALUES
The discovery of the capabilities of this area for grazing purposes is said to have been accidental. Theodore J. McMinn, of St. Louis, in the Government investigation in 1884 thus related it: "Early in December, 1864, a Government trader with a wagon train of supplies drawn by oxen was on his way west to Camp Douglas, in the Territory of Utah; but on being overtaken on the Laramie plains by an unusually severe snowstorm, he was compelled to go at once into winter quarters. He turned his cattle adrift, expecting of course that they would soon perish from exposure and starvation. But they remained about the camp and as the snow was blown off the highlands, the dried grass afforded them an abundance of forage. When the spring opened they were found to be in even better condition than when turned out to die four months previously."
This discovery, says the Government report, led to the purchase of stock cattle in Texas to be matured and fattened on the northern ranges, and the trade steadily grew to enormous proportions, much accelerated by the building of rail- roads. The number of cattle driven north from Texas between 1866 and 1884 was 5,201,132.
TRAITS OF RANGE CATTLE
Baron W. B. von Richthofen, in his book "Cattle Raising on the Plains," insists that the range cattle acquired many of the characteristics of the buffalo.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
"A cow will often defend her calf when it is caught by the lasso; they move about in families, grazing and herding together, and the attachment of a cow to her calf and vice versa is much greater than that of the domestic animal. Here and there one can watch groups of families in which the offspring of three or four generations have never been separated. The mother of all always re- tains her authority, and even punishes her children and grandchildren, though they may be much larger than herself, but in the defense of families the female yields precedence to the male."
The old-timers insist that the sight of a riderless broncho would stampede a herd of Texas longhorns, extremely timid animals. They were accustomed to the sight of men on horseback, regarding the combination as one animal. Sepa- rate them, the spell was broken and the stampede was on.
The defeat of the Indians by Col. J. M. Chivington in 1865 put a stop to the indiscriminate stock depredations of the red man. After this, although there were spasmodic attacks until 1881, the cattlemen began getting away from the settlements and taking possession of the entire area of the "Great American Desert."
"MAVERICK" LEGISLATION
In those days the country was open from Montana to Texas and cattle soon roamed at will. When a blizzard struck them the herds would move south, com- ing back again in the spring. It was not unusual to find cattle belonging in northern Colorado feeding along the Arkansas River nearly two hundred miles from their range. One of the results of this open country was the reckless branding of mavericks, but this soon brought about legislation which for some time made the maverick property of the state, giving the owner, however, ample time to enter claims. "Maverick" legislation was long an annual feature for the lawmakers of territory and state.
It was not long before there was a "code of honor" with reference to these unbranded calves, for the work of the range soon became thoroughly organized. Later, in the period of the big roundups from April to June, it required seven herders for every 5,000 head. Between July and September the herders hunted for lost cattle, and were aided by the herders of other companies in this task. During September and October, when cattle were rounded up for market, calves if unbranded were invariably given the brand on the mother. These cattle kings and herders soon became punctilious on this point of honor.
CATTLE THIEVES
The cattle thieves, however, were not so particular.
From 1861 to 1863 the ranges, particularly the Arkansas Valley, were infested by thoroughly organized gangs of cattle thieves who stole animals in what are now Fremont, Pueblo, Las Animas and Huerfano counties and took them via Trinidad to Texas, where they sold them. The most notorious of these gangs was broken up, the criminals flying the country. In 1867 and 1868 a much more formidable combination, under one William Coe, began to steal entire herds. This gang had a store, ranch and corral at the Dry Cimarron, and a station just above Boggsville. Detectives sent after them were killed, and in 1868 a flock of 3,000 sheep was found in their possession at Adobe Creek. After they had been
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
rounded up, the narrator of their fate writes: "Shortly after this Coe was taken from the jail at Pueblo and privately hung by a committee of soldiers-it was believed at the instigation of their superior officers." Certain it is, they were not court-martialed.
Cattle thieves had an easier time of it up in Larimer County. At Fort Col- lins in 1865 Lieut. Ewell P. Drake tried two of these, found them guilty, and in his sentence states that as "the safety of the community requires that no person or persons should be tolerated in this county who are unable to discriminate be- tween their own and other persons' property, it is therefore ordered that * they leave this country never to return either as residents or visitors."
In 1881 they were brazen enough after stealing from several herds in Jef- ferson County to ship the lot to Kansas City, where a Colorado inspector seized them. This gang served time in Canon City.
Colorado stockmen learned early in their use of the plains that the results of allowing the cattle to run at will were extremely remunerative. Colorado grass, the Gamma, the Buffalo and the Bunch, started about the first of May, grew until near the end of July, then dried up and cured as it stood on the ground. It retained its strength and stock kept fat on it all winter.
But the big storm of December, 1878, led most of them to take steps for the better protection of stock, and systematic winter-feeding during and after storm periods followed.
CATTLE SHIPMENTS
The shipment of cattle on a large scale began with the advent of the railroad. In 1877 some 80,000 cattle were forwarded by rail, and some 88,000 in 1878 and in the ensuing winter. Of the eastern cattle exports in 1878, 24,500 went by way of the Union Pacific, 19,800 by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, and 18,700 by the Kansas Pacific. The main shipping points were Julesburg, Cheyenne, Grenada, Las Animas, Pueblo, Rocky Ford, Deer Trail, Hugo, Denver and Wallace.
Frank Fossett, in his "Colorado," published in 1879, says :
"The cattle men of Colorado usually started in the business by securing a quantity of Texas cows-"long horns" as they were called-and a suitable num- ber of bulls, of American or foreign breeds. Some of the finest bulls in the world were brought to Colorado. Most of them were of the Durham, Hereford, Jersey, Canadian, and other fine species. Their average value ran from $100 to $150, but some were worth several times those figures. Durham bulls were generally brought to Colorado in preference to others, but later the white-faced Herefords were the favorites, and were introduced extensively.
" 'Roundups' were important occasions with cattle men, and usually occupied their time from late in April to July or August, when branding time began, and continued until the beef shipments of autumn and early winter. The cattle often scattered over the plains into adjoining counties, miles away from their start- ing place. To complete the 'roundup' the ground had to be gone over two or three times, although most of the stock was secured the first trip. There was a law, as well as rules and regulations, for the guidance of stock growers. These districted off the country and designated the points of assemblage.
"On or near the 25th day of April, when the time came for the 'roundups',
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
the stockmen in each of the sixteen districts assembled with their herders at their respective places of rendezvous and began to drive the cattle from the creeks and branches to the main stream or river. Gradually the scattered herds were gathered together. After many days and weeks from twenty to two hun- dred thousand head were massed together in a comparatively small space of ter- ritory. Then came the separating and driving away of the stock of various owners, each of whom could distinguish his property by the brands placed thereon in the previous season.
"After the country had been scoured over until the last of the wanderers had been driven in and assigned to their owners, the latter returned to their respective stock ranges, when the work of branding followed. Every cattleman had a pecu- liar brand, separate and distinct from that of his neighbor, in order that he could know his property wherever he found it. By the time fall arrived cattle were fat and in prime order for market, and shipments began and were continued until the surplus steers were disposed of. Large numbers of yearling steers were driven in from Texas, and kept on these prairie ranges until they were four years old, when from $40 to $45 was sometimes received for them.
"The first purely blooded live stock farm in Colorado was that established by Capt. J. S. Maynard, in Weld County, in 1870, with a start of thirty-six thoroughbred Shorthorns. The same year, Childs and Ring brought a Short- horn herd into El Paso County. Stock and animals of similar character had ar- rived in Saguache County in 1868, and in Huerfano, Park and Lake in 1869. The growth of the cattle interest can be appreciated from the fact that but 145,916 were assessed for taxation in 1871, while 483,278 was the number in 1878. Hartsel's importations preceded all of these.
RANGE CONDITIONS IN 1879
"The numbers and value of cattle and sheep of leading stock counties for 1879 are given as estimated by prominent dealers and owners:
Name of County
Number of Cattle
Number of
Value
"Bent
125,000
Value $2,000,000
Sheep 90,000
$190,000
Weld
95,000
1,500,000
65,000
145,000
Elbert
90,000
1,500,000
100,000
225,000
Arapahoe
60,000
1,000,000
87,000
190,000
El Paso
33,000
550,000
230,000
500,000
Las Animas
40,000
600,000
210,000
420,000
Pueblo
36,000
600,000
100,000
210,000
Larimer
27,000
450,000
70,000
160,000
Douglas
40,000
650,000
40,000
85,000
Huerfano
24,000
380,000
180,000
360,000
Saguache
25,000
400,000
25,000
55,000
Conejos
10,000
I 50,000
120,000
230,000
La Plata
50,000
900,000
30,000
65,000
Other Sections
200,000
3,100,000
570,000
1.385,000
Total
.855,000
$13,680,000
2,002,000
$4,220,000"
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
In 1879 a New York Commercial Bulletin correspondent had this to say of range conditions in Colorado: "At the east we have but an imperfect conception of its value and rapid growth. But the simple fact that the exports from Colo- rado alone, during the past five years have exceeded in value the shipments of bullion, and the further fact that what is known as the great cattle-raising belt is estimated today to contain fifteen million head, worth upward of $300,000,000, are calculated to expand those conceptions materially. Already the Iliffs, the Bosters, Dorsey, Waddingham, Craig, Hall Brothers and others have each nearly as many cattle as existed in either of the territories a year ago, and together have more than existed in New Mexico, Colorado and Nebraska combined."
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS
That the cattle business was attracting world-wide attention was evident in the late '70s when the first heavy investments were made in the industry. In a circular issued by J. Berger Spencer & Co., of London and Manchester, August 15, 1883, the firm says that "the formation in England and Scotland of large com- panies for the purchase of ranches in Western America is reported steadily on the increase. Reports as to large dividends by many Scotch companies are favorable, some being as high as 30 per cent."
This was the cause for the agitation to prevent aliens from holding title to lands in the United States. In 1883 English companies alone owned over 25,000,- 000 acres in the west. Lord Dunraven's purchase of 60,000 acres in Colorado was of this period.
In 1881 there was already evidence of the end of the cattle growing business on the range. A writer at this period says: "The range is getting crowded about the water fronts, and sheep men are driving cattle growers back from their old ranches into new quarters, north and east. Along the base of the mountains agri- culture is encroaching rapidly upon the former domains of stockmen, almost to the exclusion of the latter, who are moving their herds to a distance."
In these early 'Sos the cattlemen began their overtures to purchase the range from the Government at $1.25 an acre. It was a long and hard fight, but here too the settler finally won out and the land was left to him to homestead or buy and to populate.
In 1870 Colorado had less than twenty thousand head of sheep. In 1879 there were something like two million or more.
The wool shipments from points in Colorado, in 1878, amounted to about 4,000- 000 pounds, of which about one-half came from New Mexico, via wagon trains to the southern railway termini. These shipments embraced 1,250,000 pounds at El Moro, 500,000 at Alamosa and Fort Garland, 600,000 at Colorado Springs, 200,000 at Fort Collins, 200,000 at Greeley and Cheyenne, 500,000 at West Las Animas, 100,000 at Pueblo, 100,000 at Cañon, 100,000 at Walsenburg, and 450,000 at other places.
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