Go WEST Travel to the Wild Frontier GO WEST WITH COWBOYS AND RANCHERS Tim Cooke Crabtree Publishing Company www Crabtreebooks com
What Are the Prospects By the mid 19th century the vast open Spaces of the North American West seemed ideal for raising cattle to feed the growing populations HOME ON THE RANGE Vast grasslands Ideal for buffalo and cattle The open range was the name given to the grasslands of the Midwest This extended from Wyoming and the Dakota Territory farther north into Canada and down south into Texas In the east tall grass covered the prairies In the west treeless plains of short grass were broken by rocky areas rivers and canyons The range was home to millions of buffalo and ranchers Above Cows could roam freely over the rich discovered it was also ideal for raising cattle grasslands of the open range Lee Cattle in Texas Small beginnings Spanish soldiers brought six cows to Mexico in 1521 By the time Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836 there were six cows for every Texan The herds on the open range kept growing In 1866 railroads reached the West Now beef could be transported by railroad to sell in markets in the East This made Texan cattle worth a lot more
Barons of the West Ranchers seize the open range Control huge areas After the American Civil War ended in 1865 ranchers began grazing their cattle on the Get range Some bought patches of land that were spaced out This helped them control large areas of the range The ranchers were men such as John W Iliff who built the first open range ranch in Wyoming in 1867 John Chisum opened the first ranch in New Mexico Future president Theodore Roosevelt built a ranch in North Dakota In Canada Montreal cattle baron Matthew Cochrane led the push west to claim land for ranching in Alberta Saskatchewan and British Columbia Above By 1885 35 cattle barons owned over 30 000 square miles 77 700 square kilometers of the range COWBOYS WANTED DID YOU KNOW Men needed to look after cattle herds and drive them to the railroads Are you strong self motivated and independent Are you a skilled horseman Are you willing to work hard for low pay really really low pay Until 1836 Temas and the Southwest belonged to Meadoo The first cowboys wene Medlen Many words associated with Cowboys come from Spanish wonds including champs anch lasso coal and sombrero IF THE ANSWER IS YES YOU COULD BE A COWBOY WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS 5
