The changing life of cowboys: the open range to the closed range Flashcards
Life of the ‘Long Drive’
During the first stage of the cattle industry, the cowboys job was to drive cattle up from Texas. These cattle drives could take several months. They worked in groups called an outfit. Each outfit had about 12 cowboys, plus a cook and someone to look after the horses. Their lives were adventurous and exciting. On the long drive they faced dangers like stampedes outlaw gangs and Indian attacks.
Life on the Open Range
After John Iliff started open range ranching and open range ranching began to be more common, the long drives were no longer needed. The cowboys lives became much less exciting than before. The main job of the cowboy was now to round up the the cattle each spring and then brand them ready to be sold. In the quiet winter months, they often got other jobs, such as barmen. They lived together in the bunk houses, which could be cold and lonely in the winter. Ranches often had strict rules such as no gambling.
The end of Open Range Cattle Ranching
The cattle industry had been doing very well throughout the 1870s.
Many cattle barons had become very rich in investing lots of money into the massuive open range ranches.
However two factors caused open range ranching to end in the 1880s.
> Open range ranching was a victim of its own success. because there were so many cattle the plains became overstocked, and the grass that the cows fed on ran out. Also the price of beef fell because there was so much of it avaibible.
> A bad winter killed of many of the open range cattle. During the Great Die-UP of 1886-87, it got as cold as -55c. 15% of the cattle on the plains died, and many cattle barons went bust.
The Closed Range
After 1887, ranchers kept small ranches where the cattle were fenced in, rather than massive open range ranches.
This was because smaller herds of cattle were easier to look after.
Having fewer cattle also pushed the price back up.
The life of the cowboys on these small ranches was much less exciting than before. They were basically farmhands who looked after the animals mended barbed wire fences and patrolled the boundary of the ranch, called riding the line.
