1. What does this source suggest about the life of a cowboy on the Open Range? Is it an accurate interpretation?

2. Why did the Cattle Trade rise and fall? Who were the cowboys and what was their lifestyle? (difficult? Dangerous? Why was there a ‘beef bonanza?’ (cattle on Plains, key individuals, demand for beef in East, railroad) What was the Open Range and why did it end? (Railroad, overstocking, harsh winter 1886 – 7,new technology – barbed wire and windpump)

3. Key factors in the development of cattle ranching. The demand for beef in the populous eastern states Key individuals -Joseph McCoy -Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving -John Iliff The Cowboys The railroad

4. It has been argued that Joseph McCoy began the ‘beef bonanza’. McCoy was a livestock trader in Chicago. McCoy knew that railroad companies were keen to carry freight on their trains. He built a hotel, stockyard, office and bank to create a ‘cow town’. He set up the ‘Chisholm trail’. Cattle men could drive cattle up the trail to the rail head at Abilene without hostility from farmers as they did not cross their land. Cattle could be taken by rail east to be sold.

5. Charles Goodnight was a Texan who returned from the civil war to find his stocks of cattle had risen significantly. His herd had risen from 180 in 1860 to 5000 in 1865. These were useless unless he could sell them. Goodnight realised that the Government needed food for army outposts and reservations. He decided to blaze a trail with Oliver Loving, called the Goodnight-Loving Trail. This went through the Plains, avoiding homesteads but passed through Indian territory. As the numbers of Indians on reservations increased, the need for beef became even more important, thus Goodnight and Loving made more money.

8. Iliff was a rancher. In his life he had been a gold prospector and had opened a store selling supplies to those traveling west. He began by buying Longhorns from Goodnight. Soon his stock numbered 35,000. He kept them on the Plains and sold beef to the rail companies and to the government for the Sioux reservations. He also tried to improve the quality of beef by crossbreeding Longhorns with Herefordshire cows from England.

9. From 1866 to the mid 1870s, the cowboys had to drive the cattle from Texas to the cow towns.

13. The period 1880-85 was the peak of ranching on the plains. Ranching was seen as a sure way of making money. As cattle prices rose, cattle ranchers put more and more animals on to the open range. This put pressure on the stock of grass. The drought of 1883 added to this problem, as the grass withered. At the same time, the demand for beef in the East began to fall and so, therefore, did the prices paid for cattle. Since prices were falling, the ranchers kept their cattle on the range instead of sending them for slaughter, which increased the pressure on the grass stocks even more. Then came the final blow. The winter of 1886-87 was especially severe. Thousands of cattle died in the icy blizzards and freezing cold. Something like 15% of herds died in the worst hit areas - it was impossible to be sure since ranchers never knew how many cattle they had.

14. How did wind pumps and wire help create closed ranching? More sensible to create smaller quantities of better quality beef. Animals contained by invention of barbed wire in 1874. Initially cut by Homesteaders due to being cut off from water supplies. The wind pump use the strong winds across the Plains to power pump to draw water from underground. Ranches could be sited anywhere, rather than being near to water.

15. The question you have to ask is was it actually a war? Johnson County is in Wyoming, in the High Plains. Cattlemen had established ranches there during the 1870s. Homesteaders began to move in during the 1880s. The fight for land was on.The cattle barons had a lot of power particularly when one of their supporters became the State Governor in 1890. The cattle barons were loosing stock to rustlers. They believed that the Homesteaders were the rustlers. The barons brought in a vigilante army to deal with the rustlers. The farmers found out and planned their own attack. The US Cavalry was brought in to end an almost bloodless war. Barons were never allowed the same amount of power again.