|
The winter of 1880-'81 has gone into history as one of
the most severe that
was ever known. The prairies were
covered with snow so deep that
the cattle could not graze on
the buffalo grass on which the
ranchers relied for their winter feed. The snow came early in the
fall and laid on the ground all winter.
It was so deep that the cattle
could not travel, and at times a
crust of ice covered the surface
of it making travel impossible as the
cattle
sank
into
the
snow
and
thousands
of
head starved to death, sometimes in
sight of the hay which ranchers had put up to be fed when the
cattle could not graze. Of the 3,000
head on the Cook ranch only 800
were left in the spring. Other
ranchers had similar losses and
were obliged to close out, thus
leaving the fertile prairies
open to settlement by the farmers
who came a few years later.
To these hardy frontiersmen much
credit is due for their
efforts to establish cattle ranches in this country
to
which it is so well adapted.
Had they understood the
climate they
could have protected their stock from
blizzards as is now done and
saved themselves from losses. Among these early ranchers were Cook and Tower on Bone creek, A. M. Brinckerhoff at the mouth of Pine creek, G. W. Howenstein, J. W. Roselle, James Abernathy and G. W. Kirkpatrick. The first survey for a railroad was made on the north side of the Niobrara River. This fact may account for the early settlements along the Niobrara and Keya Paha Rivers. |
|
