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Spurred West. Ian Neligh
Читать онлайн.Название Spurred West
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781513262444
Автор произведения Ian Neligh
Жанр Учебная литература
Издательство Ingram
That gold rush drew an estimated one hundred thousand people to test their luck and resolve in the Rockies. It was dangerous, back-breaking work and gold was found only by a lucky few, but as the Rocky Mountain News predicted, the area just wasn’t prepared for the influx of people seeking their fortunes. Indeed, there wasn’t enough food to support the miners, merchants, and others trying to make a living in the shadow of gold’s discovery. Local ranchers couldn’t keep up with the demand for beef and a solution was desperately needed to feed the growing state. In time that riddle would be solved by legendary former-Texas-Ranger-turned-cattleman Charles Goodnight, who began driving cattle into the area as early in 1866.
Before long, there was a cattle boom in Colorado. This bonanza soon saw other Texas ranchers driving their cattle into the state, and other Western regions, as the local stockman scrambled to keep up with demand. While there were significant dips and valleys in the economic reality of raising livestock in the West, its long-term profitability was arguably more sustainable than the gold locked deep in the neighboring mountains.
With the creation of the Colorado Stock Growers Association in 1867 and other similar groups, books listing cattle brands were soon published to help curtail theft and determine the origin of the free-ranging cattle. Not unlike a mailing address, the brand could tell where and who a cow belonged to. Like the state’s gold rush, the beef business became extremely lucrative to those who could stick it out, especially in the early 1880s. The all-time high price of beef, then almost $40 a head, brought in unheard-of levels of investment in the industry across Colorado, New Mexico, and Montana. Fortune was fickle and often an illusion, but those who could find opportunity grabbed at it and held on for dear life, because if you didn’t—and many couldn’t—you hit rock bottom with a bone-crushing thud. The line between legal and illicit was often just determined by who had the most friends in the right places or simply whether you were caught in the act. Almost from the beginning, beef proved to be an easy business to steal into, and cattle thefts soon became a rampant and violent problem that escalated into a war.
Cattle Thieves and Vigilantes
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