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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.01.16 16:30l 61 Lines 2904 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 81255_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 9
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 160109/1530Z 81255@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1887
Record cold and snow decimates cattle herds
On one of the worst days of the "worst winter in the West,"
nearly an inch of snow falls every hour for 16 hours, impeding
the ability of already starving cattle to find food.
The plains ranchers had seen hard winters before, but they had
survived because their cattle had been well fed going into the
winter. By the mid-1880s, though, the situation had changed. In
the hopes of making quick money, greedy speculators had
overstocked the northern ranges in Montana, Wyoming, and the
Dakotas. Deceived by a string of mild winters, many ranch
managers were also no longer putting up any winter-feed for their
stock. Disaster arrived in 1886.
The summer of 1886 was hot and dry, and by autumn, the range was
almost barren of grass. The cold and snow came early, and by
January, record-breaking snowfalls blanketed the plains, forcing
the already weakened cattle to expend vital energy moving through
the snow in search of scant forage. In January, a warm Chinook
wind briefly melted the top layers of snow. When the brutal cold
returned (some ranches recorded temperatures of 63 degrees below
zero), a hard thick shell of ice formed over everything, making
it almost impossible for the cattle to break through the snow to
reach the meager grass below. With no winter hay stored to feed
the animals, many ranchers had to sit by idly and watch their
herds slowly die. "Starving cattle staggered through village
streets," one historian recalls, "and collapsed and died in
dooryards." In Montana, 5,000 head of cattle invaded the
outskirts of Great Falls, eating the saplings the townspeople had
planted that spring and "bawling for food."
When the snow melted in the spring, carcasses of the once massive
herds dotted the land as far as the eye could see. One observer
recalled that so many rotting carcasses clogged creek and river
courses that it was hard to find water fit to drink. Millions of
cattle are estimated to have died during the "Great Die Up" as it
came to be called, a darkly humorous reference to the celebrated
"Round Up." Montana ranchers alone lost an estimated 362,000 head
of cattle, more than half the territory's herd.
Besides sending hundreds of ranches into bankruptcy, the hard
winter also brought an abrupt end to the era of the open range.
Realizing they would always have to grow crops to feed their
animals, ranchers decreased the size of their herds and began to
stretch barbed wire fences across the open range to enclose new
hay fields. By the 1890s, the typical rancher was also a farmer,
and cowboys spent more time fixing fences than riding herd or
roping mavericks. Belatedly, settlers realized that they had to
adapt to the often-harsh demands of life on the western plains if
they were to survive and thrive.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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