The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968 Page: 43
686 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Range Deterioration in West Texas
breeding grounds of the West and Southwest died by thousands from thirst
and starvation. It may seem like throwing away money not to have all the
grass eaten down, but in the long run there will be more profit if
there are fewer head carried per square mile.""
The tally records of the early ranches show that the ranges were
overstocked from the beginning, as evidenced by low calf crops. In
1881 the J A Ranch reported only a 30 per cent calf crop."' The Spur
Ranch had only about a 20 per cent calf crop in the early 188o's."
However, even the low calf crop did not change the policy of the
absentee owners-the grass was free and more cattle were needed to
eat it.
By 1884 resident cattle owners in West Texas realized the range was
overstocked."8 The large "die-up" of cattle in 1884 confirmed their
worst suspicions. The conditions were described in detail by the
colorful Don Biggers of Colorado City:
In the winter of 1884 began a series of the most disastrous years ever
known in the cattle history . . . When a blizzard would sweep over
the country the cattle would drift before it, and it was then no un-
common sight to see great herds of cattle rolling southward, nothing to
eat, nothing to drink, pelted by sleet and covered with snow; while
around them the pittiless [sic] blizzard seemed to howl in fiendish glee."'
The winter of 1886 was very severe, and in the spring of 1887 occurred,
beyond a doubt the awfullest die-up ever known in the United States.
From the Canadian borders to the Rio Grande the range country was
covered with carcasses. .... When the blizzards came, the cattle would
drift south until they came to the southern line of fence. Unable to
go further they would move back and forth, pressing close to the
fence or standing in clusters, suffering from cold, hunger and thirst
and trampling out every vestage [sic] of grass. One would fall or lie
down and others would tumble over it, and soon there would be a
heap of dead along the line of fence. I saw one instance and heard of
many others, where, for a distance of two and three hundred yards,
the heaps of dead bodies were higher than the fence. Over these bodies
the snow drifted and sifted between them soon forming a solid, frozen
mass over which hundreds of living cattle walked, tumbled over the fence
and drifted away. This awful spectacle was to be reproduced in i894.1
"sSmith, "Forage Conditions of the Prairie Regions," 322-323.
S7Harley T. Burton, A History of the JA Ranch (Austin, 1928), 61.
"SHolden, The Spur Ranch, 35.
sJ. Wright Mooar, "Some Observations on the Cattle Industry," West Texas Historical
Association Yearbook, V (1929), 124-125.
4"Franks, History That Will Never Be Repeated, 22.
,"Ibid., 24-25.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968, periodical, 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117145/m1/61/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.