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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Spring 1983

The Origin Of Ranching In Western Canada American Diffusion Or Victorian Transplant?

Simon M. Evans Memorial University of Newfoundland

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Evans, Simon M., "The Origin Of Ranching In Western Canada American Diffusion Or Victorian Transplant?" (1983). Great Plains Quarterly. 1706. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1706

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE ORIGIN OF RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA AMERICAN DIFFUSION OR VICTORIAN TRANSPLANT?

SIMON M. EVANS

During the last quarter of the nineteenth West for a vital twenty-year period is much less century, a number of factors combined to pro­ well known. mote the rapid advance of the ranching fron­ It was the cattlemen who initiated settle­ tier throughout the Great Plains of North ment in the foothills and valleys of the Cana­ America. The demands of rapidly growing dian Rockies and explored the short~grass urban populations in the northeastern United prairies around the Cypress Hills. During this States and north western Europe provided an brief period of unchallenged occupation, a new apparently insatiable market for meat. The volume of population was spread unevenly grasslands were linked to these markets by an over the land, new patterns of circulation and expanding railway network and steamships interaction were established, and new and long­ that crossed the Atlantic on regular schedules. lasting elements were added to local society. Rumors of the huge profits to be made from Yet settlement studies of the Canadian prairies investments in mines, railways, and ranges lured have paid but scant attention to the ranching a flood of risk capital to the West. The ~inter~ frontier and pass from discussion of the fur play of these and other factors in the United trade to analysis of homesteading and the States has been subjected to intensive scrutiny wheat economy. by writers and r~searchers from a variety of The tacit assumption has been that ranching disciplines.1 The fact that ranching dominated in Canada was merely an extension of the the land use pattern of much of the Canadian Cattle Kingdom of the United States and hence was hardly worthy of particular study. This was certainly the view exp,essed by A. S. Morton and J. F. Booth, who contributed to the bench­ Simon M. Evans is an associate professor of mark study Canadian Frontiers of Settlement geography in Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, 2 Memorial University of Newfoundland. His during the 1930s. More recently, W. L. Morton publications include articles in Canadian Ethnic endorsed this point of view and summarized in Studies, Agricultural History, and Prairie these words: "The advance into the plains, led Forum. His research interests include ethnic by the spearhead of the Canadian Pacific Rail­ settlement patterns in the Canadian West. way, had begun as a broad front of settlement

79 80 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983 to Indian Head, to Regina, until the dusty core strengths also change. New patterns are visual­ of Palliser's triangle was reached, and the farm­ ized as emerging from competition and rivalry ing frontier from the east was stopped by the between successive resource users.7 ranching front advancing from the south.,,3 The cattlemen, as they advanced into the At this level of generalization it seemed obvious Great Plains, successfully shouldered the In­ that ranchers north and south of the line were dians aside and replaced the indigenous buffalo linked by common objectives, used broadly with their own herds of cattle. After a few similar techniques, and faced the same chal­ decades of occupation, the ranchers too gave lenges. way before the honyockers, the grangers, and During the past few years a vigorous revi­ the sodbusters. Four key variables profoundly sionist analysis of the Canadian ranching fron­ influenced the advance of this most volatile tier has been proposed by David H. Breen.4 He pastoral frontier; they may serve as a useful has identified significant social and attitudinal basis for a comparison of progress and practice contrasts that existed north and south of the north and south of the line. First, for all their border. He has stressed that the majority of independel)ce, cattlemen were profoundly af­ people who took up ranching were of British, fected by the institutional framework in which not American, origin and that the industry was they operated. National governments in Ottawa dominated by a wealthy and politically power­ and Washington had strikingly different per­ ful elite to whom the imperial connection was ceptions of their western domains and legis­ all-important. lated accordingly. Second, the advance of the Thus two explanatory models have been open-range frontier was spurred by a flow of proposed to provide an organizational frame­ risk capital toward the West. The ups and work for discussion of the relationship that downs of international money markets pro­ existed between open-range ranching in Canada duced periods of frenzied bonanza and likewise and in the United States. Both models have un­ periods of retraction and consolidation. Third, deniable charms; they are selective, they search the occupation of the Great Plains and prairies for pattern among a mass of data, and they can was an extension of a global movement pro­ be used as "speculative instruments" for fur­ voked by the demands of rapidly growing urban­ ther study.S There undoubtedly was a diffusion industrial populations for food. Markets, of men, herds, techniques, and ideas from the prices, and the ebb and flow of international United States into Canada. Just as surely, the trade influenced every decision made on the Canadian ranching frontier exhibited some cattleman's frontier. Finally, the nature of the uniquely regional characteristics. My purpose open-range frontier owed much to a wonder­ here is to attempt to weigh "diffusion" against fully heterogeneous group of people who "uniqueness," to evaluate both explanatory evaluated the changing economic milieu created models from a geographer's perspective, and to by these interacting variables according to their draw on the geographical literature for an several goals and objectives. alternative approach. The region with which this study is primarily Geographers view the frontier not as a cru­ concerned is depicted in a map of the "Grazing cible in which was forged a new society, but Country" of the North West Territories, pre­ rather as an interface between two contrasting pared for the Canadian Department of the types of land use. They see the advance of the Interior in 1881 (Fig. 1). It comprised a vast frontier in terms of the diffusion of a new way triangular area bounded by the United States of using resources, which in turn involves an border to the south and the Rocky Mountains influx of people, capital, technology, and trans­ to the west. The "park belt" of aspen woodland portation.6 Patterns of occupancy are viewed along the North Sa~katchewan River provided a as dynamic distributions that change as the much less definite boundary to the north and interrelationships between forces of different east. The townships along the foothills in the FIG. 1. Original map of "Grazing Country" of the North West Territories, drawn for the Canadian Department of the Interior in 1881. 82 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983 chinook belt had already been surveyed for the objective of luring farmers westward, not settlement in 1881. This was the area taken up of providing a realistic framework within which by major British and Canadian ranch com­ ranching could be pursued legitimately.10 panies in 1882 and 1883. Continued depen­ Those who were charged with administering the dence on the Missouri River route and the port public domain were quick to appreciate the of Fort Benton in Montana is hinted at by the need for new methods of landholding in the inclusion of this region within the map. Later semiarid grasslands, but their efforts at legis­ American penetration of the Canadian range lative reform were thwarted because most during the 1890s occurred along the line of the western settlers regarded any system that north bank tributaries of the Missouri up into encouraged control of large tracts of land by a the Cypress Hills. single party with deep suspicion.l1 During the 1880s the North West Territories The cattle boom, that explosive surge of were divided into four administrative districts. men, stock, and capital onto the western range­ Assiniboia occupied the southern part of the lands, occurred outside the protection afforded present province of Saskatchewan; the district by the law. As more and more cattlemen moved of Saskatchewan lay to the north. The district their herds north and west to appropriate for of Alberta was the southern of the remaining themselves by prescriptive right an "accustomed two districts, while Athabasca stretched across range," crowding developed. Illegal fencing, the north. In 1905 the present provinces of fraudulent acquisition of land, and range wars Alberta and Saskatchewan were established and were the results. In his recent book, Failure on granted provincial autonomy. the Plains, Dan Fulton argues that this basic prob­ lem of providing security of tenure to ranchers 12 GOVERNMENTS AND THE who use the public domain has yet to be solved. RANCHING FRONTIER In Canada the frenetic growth of the five years from 1881 to 1885 took place within a No more stark contrast exists between the legal framework and was regulated on the spot cattlemen's frontier in Canada and in the Uni­ by agents of the federal government. The Domi­ ted States than the differing roles played by the nion Lands Act was amended in 1881, and central governments of the two countries in regulations under which the act might be imple­ the management of their western lands. In mented were published as an order in council Canada, a comprehensive legislative package in December 1881.13 Leases of up to one was introduced in 1881 that enabled individuals hundred thousand acres in extent were made or companies to lease large acreages of grazing available for a period of twenty-one years at a land for a period of twenty-one years.8 At rental of one cent per acre per year. These much the same time, the men who occupied the provisions were attractive enough to lure east­ grasslands of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado ern risk capital to the Canadian West and to rejected proposals that might have resulted in ensure that the ranching frontier in the North the modification of existing land laws and in West Territories developed within a much more the formation of large landholdings, on the rigid institutional framework than was the case grounds that such a "land grab" was contrary south of the border. The lessee of grazing land to their theory of government. could rely on the support of the North West In the United States the cattlemen were re­ Mounted Police, while the Department of Agri­ garded "as merely an advanced screen ahead of culture was actively promoting his product in the real conquerors of the land, the pioneer Great Britain.14 For a time at least, and to fur­ farmers.,,9 Few legal concessions were made to ther the purpose of the Dominion, the Cana­ the stockmen. The Timber Culture Act (1873) dian government set aside the image of the and the Desert Lands Act (1877) were out­ homestead settler and the family farm and growths of the 1862 Homestead Act and had created a "Big Man's Frontier.,,15 THE ORIGIN OF RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA 83

This is a significant contrast, and it has far­ from contemporaries.20 During the middle reaching implications. In almost every case years of the nineteenth century, capital accu­ involving land policy, Canada followed the mulation in Britain outstripped the capacity course already pioneered in the United States.16 of expanding industry to absorb it. Investors However, the manner in which the Dominion with idle capital began to search out investment handled its western grazing lands is an excep­ fields in the United States, where a shortage of tion. It is to legislation evolved in Natal and the capital meant high returns. A series of changes Australian colonies that the origins of the lease in the law concerning joint stock companies legislation must be traced. The precedent for and limited liability made it easier and safer this departure from North American norms for both landed proprietors and the middle came to Canada by way of imperial connec­ classes to share investment opportunities with tions.17 financiers and businessmen.21 These develop­ ments coincided with the end of the Civil War and a sudden demand for the development of CAPITAL FLOWS TO THE WEST the resources of the American West. More The rapid advance of the ranching frontier particularly, the North Atlantic cattle trade in the United States and in Canada between grew over a period of a few years to become a 1881 and 1885 was spurred by a massive influx multi-million-dollar business.22 In 1879 the of eastern capital.18 More than five hundred British government sent two members of Parli­ cattle companies were founded in Montana, ament to the plains to review the prospects for Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, while investment. On their return to Britain the two twenty-three companies were established in the commissioners reported that annual profits in Canadian Northwest. Many of these companies the range cattle business were often as high as never got beyond the stage of incorporating 33 percent.23 This report and the spectacular themselves and publishing a glossy prospectus, success of the Prairie Cattle Company, incor­ but the figures indicate the dimensions of the porated in 1880, made ranching something of a surge of interest that occurred during the boom cause celebre. The "beef bonanza" became a period. The book capital of the United States topic of conversation in the House of Com­ companies amounted to 170 million dollars, mons, the queen's drawing room, and in the while some 5.5 million dollars were subscribed clubs of Montreal, Boston, New York, and chi­ to establish Canadian companies.19 cago. The promotional tracts published by Most of the capital used to underwrite the General James S. Brisbin and others fanned the development of the cattle kingdom in Canada flames of enthusiasm.24 English and Scottish and the United States came from eastern finan­ newspapers, as well as financial journals in cial exchanges. The investors were very much a Canada and the United States, investigated and part of the North American business milieu evaluated opportunities for investment.25 Ten and shared common characteristics. major British-American cattle companies were It is hard to pinpoint any fundamental con­ incorporated in 1881 alone.26 By 1884 a speak­ trasts in the origin and the manner in which er on the floor of the United States Congress capital was made available to the ranching fron­ gave figures to show that some twenty million tier in the two countries. Alberta and Assini­ acres, mostly in the range cattle area, had been boia were linked to Montreal and Toronto, acquired within the space of a few years by while spreads in Montana and Wyoming were foreigners, mainly citizens of Great Britain.27 tied to Chicago and New York. The provision The Canadian government must have eyed of capital for ranching was yet another example with dismay the millions of pounds of sterling of metropolitan dominance. that were pouring from the heart of the em­ The flow of British capital to the range pire to the American plains while the western country excited much comment and concern lands of the dominion remained painfully 84 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983 undeveloped. The liberality of the lease legis­ years and the enterprises were threatened by lation, implemented in 1881, may be inter­ all the risks that attend pioneering. preted as an attempt to lure at least part of In summary, the pattern of capital flow to this transatlantic investment to the Canadian the Canadian West during the 1880s does not Northwest. If this was the case, the effort was fit neatly into either of the explanatory models only partially successful. proposed. There seems to have been little or no Compared with the flood of investment that flow of American capital northward from finan­ flowed from Britain to the American Great cial cores such as Chicago and Saint Louis, or Plains, British interest in the Canadian range even from Cheyenne and Helena. The British seems somewhat paltry. The three British­ contribution was locally important, but when it Canadian companies-important as they were is weighed against the total British investment locally-were not even public companies during in North America, the amount of capital com­ their early years; they were the result of capital mitted to the Canadian range was small indeed. put together by individual investors.28 In this Investment did not follow the flag onto the characteristic they paralleled a large number of plains of Assiniboia al}d Alberta; there were small and middle-order companies founded in more alluring prospects in the republic to the the United States, but they do not bear com­ south. parison with the Prairie, the Texas, the Matador, and the other great British-American cattle THE TRANSATLANTIC CONNECTION companies. There were a number of reasons why British The rapid expansion of the North Atlantic investors showed more interest in ranch enter­ cattle trade had an immense impact both on the prises in the western United States rather than countries supplying the stock and on Great in Canada. Most British investment, from all Britain, the major recipient. Not surprisingly, sectors of society, took place through invest­ the trade received much attention from con­ ment and mortgage companies. The managers temporary observers and it has been the subject of these interests had well-established contacts of several recent books and articles.29 In the in the western United States. They had already space of a few years an entirely new staple invested in mines, railways, and land com­ sprang up and began to play an important role panies. Cattle companies were a new facet of a in the national trade of both Canada and the much larger investment program. Their profits United States. The advance of settlement across were based on the fact that they could borrow the world's temperate grasslands has been cheaply at home and lend at much higher rates related to the demand of European markets of interest in the West. Good intelligence was for agricultural products.30 Nowhere was this essential, and it was provided by agents who relationship better illustrated than in the case investigated investment prospects with care. of the cattlemen's frontier. Neither long-standing contacts nor the agents The number of steers shipped from Canada were present in Canada. Moreover, British in­ rose from only 20,000 head in 1877 to some vestors expected immediate returns on their 212,000 in 1898, while the corresponding capital. In the American West they took over value of this trade increased from $1 million going concerns and often employed the previ­ to $10 million. Live cattle rose to rank third ous owner as manager. The first- and second­ among items exported to the United King­ generation entrepreneurs who had built the dom.31 Vital though this trade became to cattle industry in Texas, Colorado, and New Canada, it was dwarfed by the flow of cattle Mexico during the 1860s and 1870s had no from the United States. During the 1880s counterparts in Canada. The institutional and 1890s the United States provided about framework might have been enticing in Canada, 70 percent of Britain's imports of cattle, as but profits were unlikely to accrue for several compared with Canada's contribution of about THE ORIGIN OF RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA 85

20 percent. The United States also monopo­ pressing cattle disease in the United States lized trade in chilled and frozen beef at this comprised fewer than twenty persons.34 It time and was shipping enormous quantities of was not until 1890 that meat inspection be­ pork. In 1890 meat products made up 30 per­ came the responsibility of this department. cent of the total exports of the United States.32 During the formative period, the manner in Shippers in Montreal and New York reacted which live cattle were shipped was a function as one to price changes in Smithfield and of the unregulated forces of the market place. Birkenhead. They faced common problems of The meat trade was controlled by great timing and logistics. Cattle originating in the corporations like Armour and Company, Swift United States were sometimes shipped from and Company, and Morris and Company. These Canadian ports, and at other times Canadian firms expanded both vertically and horizontally cattle found their way to the docks of Portland until they dominated every facet of the trade, and New York. To a considerable extent it is from production to retailing.35 Their success possible to regard the North Atlantic cattle in the export market was firmly founded on the trade as an integrated whole, but there were growing home market for meat within the important differences in the manner in which manufacturing cities of the Northeast and upon the trade was managed in the two countries. the ability of industry to absorb by-products From the very beginning the Canadian such as leather, lard, and bone. The develop­ government played a significant role in super­ ment of these corporate giants had no counter­ vising and promoting the cattle trade. During part in Canada, where meat packing was organ­ the 1870s, conditions at ports of embarkation ized on a small scale in response to r~gional were enormously improved under the direction demand. It was not until World War I that of Duncan McEachran, the chief inspector of Canada established modern packing plants and quarantines. Inspection of cattle on shipboard bid for a share of the more lucrative and effi­ was carried out with increasing vigor, and losses cient dead-meat trade.36 of animals on ships of the Canadian Allan and Thus Canada was able to capitalize on her Dominion Lines were considerably lower than geographic location and imperial connections those experienced by other companies. Close to build a privileged position for herself in the supervision paid dividends in 1879, when the greatest meat market in the world. Unique link­ imperial government placed a "schedule" on ages were forged that bound Canadian ranches cattle imported from the United States. This to British markets and created a vital staple meant that, under the provisions of the Conta­ for the dominion during the last quarter of the gious Diseases (Animals) Act, all stock from the twentieth century. United States had to be slaughtered at the port of entry within ten days.33 Canadian cattle DUDES, COWPOKES, MILORDS, were exempt from this regulation and the domi­ AND CATI'LEMEN nion secured a privileged position in the great and expanding livestock market of the mother Who were the men who accepted the chal­ country. lenge of the Canadian government to establish In the United States, mechanisms by which ranching on a large scale in the North West efficient and impartial inspections of cattle Territories? Canadian historiography has tacitly could be carried out were slow to emerge. This assumed that they were mostly Americans. was due both to conflicts between state and Breen, on the other hand, has built up a con­ federal jurisdictions and to the enormous lobby­ vincing picture of a ranch society drawn from ing power of the meat packing and shipping the "ranks of the lesser landed gentry and companies. The Bureau of Animal Industry was military families" in Britain and eastern Cana­ not established until 1884, and at that time the da, and espousing many of the ideals of the entire veterinary force for regulating and sup- Victorian era.37 Certainly, from the Marquis of 86 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

Lorne in 1881 to the Prince of Wales in 1921, established themselves within all· strata of so­ the beauty of the ranching country in the ciety. Harvard men and "milords" were found foothills caught and held the imagination of in many a dragline on the drive from Texas. the highest in the land, while the attractions of Polo, fox hunting, tennis, and even tea became the region, for those who enjoyed an outdoor familiar features at the Cheyenne Club as well way of life and plenty of sporting activity, were as the Ranchmen's Club in Calgary.41 Ranching obvious. 38 societies, as they grew up on either side of the The danger is that this "Victorian ideal" be border, were above all else heterogeneous. set uncritically against a stereotypical image of They included all sorts and conditions of men. the American "wild West." British travelers If there were differences, they were of degree, and sportsmen were drawn to the Great Plains not of kind. in ever-increasing numbers during the latter Nor can a peaceful and law-abiding Canadian half of the nineteenth century. Buffalo hunting, frontier be contrasted in simple terms with the prospecting, making contact with Indians, and supposed violence and mayhem south of the exploring-all drew supporters.39 The "beef border. In his carefully balanced evaluation, bonanza" attracted foreigners not only as an Paul Sharp has argued that such differences investment but also as an adventurous and as did occur were due more to institutional and enjoyable way of life.40 Men from the eastern structural contrasts in the organization of law states and from Britain played a significant role keeping than to any fundamental differences in building the cattlemen's frontier in the in the type of sOciety.42 The literature of the United States as they did in Canada. They American cattle industry suggests that northern

ORIGINS OF LEASEHOLDERS 1886 ALB E FLT A ~ Canada _ United States

• Great Britain G Indian Reservation

o 25 50 2g0

In

1Ver

FIG. 2. THE ORIGIN OF RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA 87

ranges were much more law-abiding than the Other American interests took up land north southern. Matt Winters explained, "the alkali of the Canadian Pacific mainline and on both water they drinked up here took it [the vio­ sides of the South Saskatchewan River.45 lence lout of them, and the winters froze out (See Fig. 3.) what was left.,,43 More plausibly, it could be The social significance of this "American argued that much of the violence that became invasion" was great. Incoming farm settlers, part of the myth of the West was associated whether from the eastern provinces, the mid­ with the bitter aftermath of the Civil War and western states, or from Europe, had their the ongoing conflict with the Indians. Later and stereotypical images of "cowboys and cattle more localized outbursts of violence were a kings" co~firmed by their contacts with the product of intense competition for scarce great cattle companies that dominated the resources, particularly the clashes between dwindling short-grass range during the first cattlemen and shepherds and cattlemen and decade of the twentieth century.46 This has farmers. None of these conditions existed on done much to obscure the fact that a robust the Canadian range. and uniqut;ly Canadian variant of the cattle Analysis of the lease agreements between kingdom had taken root in the foothills area the Canadian government and prospective twenty years earlier. Two different traditions ranchers suggests that there was some degree evolved side by side. One, located in the foot­ of spatial separation between "Anglo-Canadian" hills and valleys flanking the Rocky Mountains, and "American" influences in southern Alberta was the creation of the eastern Canadian and Assiniboia.44 This occurred because the establishment and was closely linked to im­ two groups took up leases at different times. perial markets. The short-grass prairies to the The promulgation of the lease legislation in east, on the other hand, were occupied briefly 1882 led to a flurry of activity on the Alberta by the last survivors of a colorful company of range. Ranch companies, hastily formed in men who had ridden the trails and followed the Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, poured capital grass up from Texas. into stocking the grassland. Leases covering

some 4 million acres were granted in 1882, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS and major Canadian and British cattle com­ panies established a firm hold over the choice The period of pastoral occupancy of the grazing lands of the chinook belt. Not one of Great Plains of North America displays a cer­ these companies was American. (See Fig. 2.) tain unity and coherence. A familiar sequence When American cattlemen began to show an of events accompanied the advance of the interest in the Canadian range during 1885, cattlemen, whether it was along the Rio Grande they were looking for pasture along the bor­ or in the Oregon Country.47 The first ranchers der-a northward extension of their home supplied local markets at "way stations" along ranges in Montana. They secured leases covering major trails and at military posts. They often about three-quarters of a million acres around mixed ranching with farming. As large-scale the Cypress Hills and in the short-grass prairie operations began to develop, the most seques­ lands well to the east of the main Canadian tered range was taken up first and topographi­ holdings. The catastrophic impact of the winter cal boundaries were used to enclose stock. of 1886-87 curbed this thrust of American These early beginnings were followed by a cattlemen into Canadian territory, but not for halcyon period when "free grass" seemed long. The opening years of the twentieth cen­ limitless. Almost immediately the seeds of tury saw another surge of optimism in the range change were sown by innovators who saw the cattle business, and several great cattle com­ advantages of improving stock by selective panies legalized their de facto occupation of breeding. This strategy inevitably led to fenc­ pastures along the border by taking out leases. ing, both to exclude scrub bulls and to make 88 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

Wilkinson* & McCord PRESSURE ON THE CANADIAN RANGE Major American Ranch, estab. 1900-1906 HAND ,* Driftways of American cattle • North-West Mounted Police Post Elevation above 1000 metres 5,0 Mexico Ri~ < __ * !,;/-"~c *~~~~rad Circle Brooks

, Swift Current

*rurkey Track

Havre Glasgow BEARPAW MOUNTAINS

FIG.3. practical the prOVISIOn of whiter feed to valu­ The individual characteristics of each region able livestock. Purposive adaption of this kind reflect differing institutional arrangements, was paralleled by changes external to the capital flows, markets, and personalities, al­ industry that forced even the laggards to pur­ though metropolitan dominance appears to be a chase land and to intensify their operations. common theme. The Canadian range must be Cattlemen became farmer-ranchers, and cow­ added to this list, for the role of the national boys had to learn to undertake some chores government in promoting and regulating the that could not be handled from the back of a range cattle industry in that country had no horse. Terry Jordan's work has shown how parallel in the United States. individual histories blended as the culture Further understanding and interpretation of and the technology of the open range evolved the relationships between the American and and changed.48 The process of settlement in Canadian Wests in the late nineteenth century the Canadian West must be treated within this may require the adoption of an entirely differ­ continental context. Ranching traditions in the ent framework of inquiry. Perhaps it is time foothills of the Rockies involved a fusion of that strictly thematic studies of ranching, Laurentian, Oregonian, and Montanan cultural homesteading, banking, and railway develop­ traits, while the short-grass prairies were influ­ ment should be supplemented by a focus upon enced by the mixed Spanish-Anglo tradition. the evolution and development of regional Yet, there was not one frontier, but many. nuclei. It is ten years since Donald Meinig Ohio, Florida, Mexico, California, Texas, Ore­ proposed a comprehensive model of the West as gon, Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana-each a set of dynamic regions. Focusing as it does on acted as a core area of pastoral occupancy. the intermediate or regional scale, his model THE ORIGIN OF RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA 89 describes "a cycle of divergence and conver­ West and the Ranching Frontier, 1874-1924 gence as between western regions and the (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983). national core and culture. ,,49 The Canadian 5. Richard J. Chorley and Peter Haggett, plains as a whole, separated from the rest of Integrated Models in Geography (London: the Great Plains by an institutional fault line, Methuen, 1967), p. 23. would fit into this schema, while the grazing 6. Robert D. Mitchell, "The Shenandoah Valley Frontier," Annals of the Association of lands of southern Alberta and Assiniboia would American Geographers 62 (September 1972): form a subregion. This approach would un­ 159-84. doubtedly further illuminate the variety of the 7. Donald W. Meinig, The Great Columbia cattlemen's frontier. Plain (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968). NOTES 8. Statutes of Canada, 1881, clr. 16, sec. 8; for a general review, see Chester Martin, "Domi­ The author acknowledges the assistance of nion Lands" Policy, ed. by Lewis H. Thomas Gary McManus of the Cartographic Laboratory, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973). Memorial University of Newfoundland, in pre­ 9. Osgood, Day of the Cattleman, p. 194. paring Figures 2 and 3. Earlier versions of these 10. This argument is developed in Walter M. Kollmorgen, "The Woodsman's Assaults on the maps appeared in Prairie Forum 4 (1979); Domain of the Cattleman," Annals of the Asso­ reprinted by permission. ciation of American Geographers 59 (March 1. Ernest Staples Osgood, The Day of the 1969): 215-39. Cattleman (Chicago: University of Chicago 11. Roy M. Robbins, Our Landed Heritage: Press, 1929); Edward Everett Dale, The Range The Public Domain, 1776-1936 (1942; reprint, Cattle Industry (Norman: University of Okla­ Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962), homa Press, 1930); Maurice Frink, W. Turren­ p. 220; John Wesley Powell, Report on the Arid tine Jackson, and Agnes Wright Spring, When Region of the United States, ed. by Wallace Grass Was King (Boulder: University of Colo­ Stegner (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University rado Press, 1956); Lewis Atherton, The Cattle Press, Belknap Press, 1962). Kings (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 12. Dan Fulton, Failure on the Plains: A 1961); Gene M. Gressley, Bankers and Cattle­ Rancher's View of the Public Lands Problem men (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966). (Bozeman: Montana State University, 1982). Recent contributions include David Dary, 13. Canada, Department of Interior, Orders Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries in Council, 20 May 1881, vol. 3, pp. 611-13. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981); Terry G. 14. Cecil E. Denny, The Law Marches West Jordan, Trails to Texas (Lincoln: University (Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1939); Burton of Nebraska Press, 1981); and Don D. Walker, Deane, Mounted Police Life in Canada (Tor­ Clio's Cowboys (Lincoln: University of Nebras­ onto: Cassell and Co., 1916); Hugh A. Demp­ ka Press, 1981). sey, Men in Scarlet (Calgary: McClelland and 2. Arthur S. Morton, History of Prairie Stewart West, 1974); David H. Breen, "The Settlement, vol. 2 of Canadian Frontiers of Turner Thesis and the Canadian West: A Closer Settlement, ed. by William A. Mackintosh and Look at the Ranching Frontier," in Essays on W. L. G. Joerg, 9 vols. (Toronto: MacMillan of Western History, ed. by Lewis H. Thomas (Ed­ Canada, 1938); J. F. Booth, "Ranching in the monton: University of Alberta Press, 1976). Prairie Provinces," in Agricultural Progress on 15. Brian Fitzpatrick, "The Big Man's Fron­ the Prairie Frontier, by R. W. Murchie, vol. 5 tier and Australian Farming," Agricultural of Canadian Frontiers of Settlement. History 21 (January 1947): 8-12. 3. William L. Morton, "A Century of Plain 16. Martin, "Dominion Lands" Policy, p. xxi. and Parkland," in A Region of the Mind, ed. 17. During 1903, Robert H. Campbell re­ by Richard Allen (Regina: University of Saskat­ viewed the situation with reference to grazing chewan Press, 1973). leases in western Canada. He compared practice 4. David H. Breen, The Canadian Prairie in other parts of the world and observed, "In 90 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1983

Australia, from which the lease system which Lords and Commons; or, Twenty Years on the has been followed in Canada is borrowed, the Range (Toronto: William Briggs, 1903); C. W. history has been somewhat similar to our own." Buchanan, "History of the Walrond Cattle Canada, Department of Interior, Grazing Regu­ Ranche Ltd.," Canadian Cattlemen 8 (March lations, 6 November 1903, Public Archives of 1946): 171; Sheilagh S. Jameson, "The Quorn Canada, RG 15, f. 145330; for a full discussion, Ranche," Canadian Cattlemen 8 (September see Simon M. Evans, "The Passing of a Fron­ 1945): 68. tier: Ranching in the Canadian West, 1882- 29. R. F. Crawford, "Notes on the Food 1912" (Ph.D. diss., University of Calgary, Supply of the United Kingdom, Belgium, 1976), pp. 82-86. France and Germany," Journal of the Royal 18 Gressley, Bankers and Cattlemen. Statistical Society 62 (December 1899): 19. Maurice Frink, "When Grass Was King," 597-638; R. H. Hooker, "The Meat Supply of part 1 of When Grass Was King, by Frink, the United Kingdom," Journal of the Royal Jackson, and Spring, p. 73; Annual Reports of Statistical Society 72 (June 1909): 304-86; the Registrar General for Canada, 1880-92, George E. Putnam, Supplying Britain's Meat cited in Evans, "The Passing of a Frontier," (London: George Harrap, 1913); Riehard Per­ pp. 106-10. ren, The Meat Trade in Britain, 1840-1914 20. W. Turrentine Jackson, "British Interests (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978); in the Range Cattle Industry," part 2 of When John P. Huttman, "British Meat Imports in Grass Was King, by Frink, Jackson, and Spring; the Free Trade Era," Agricultural History W. Turrentine Jackson, The Enterprising Scot: 52 (April 1978): 247-362; Simon M. Evans, Investors in the A merican West after 1873 "Canadian Beef for Victorian Britain," Agricul­ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1968); tural History 53 (October 1979): 748-62. Robert G. Athearn, Westward the Briton (New 30. Donald W. Meinig, On the Margins of the York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1953). Good Earth (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 21. Alexander K. Cairncross, Home and pp. 1-7; Paul F. Sharp, "Three Frontiers: Foreign Investment, 1870-1913: Studies in Some Compara'tive Studies of Canadian, Ameri­ Capital Accumulation (Cambridge: Cambridge can, and Australian Settlement," Pacific Histor­ University Press, 1953); Anthony R. Hall, The ical Review 24 (November 1955): 369-77. Export of Capital from Britain, 1870-1914 31. Canada, Sessional Papers, 1913, XLVII, (London: Methuen, 1968). "Exports from Canada: Animals and Their 22. William D. Zimmerman, "Live Cattle Products," vol. 6, no. 10, p. 548; S. B. Saul, Export Trade between the United States and Studies in British Overseas Trade, 1870-1914 Great Britain, 1868-1885," Agricultural His­ (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1960). tory 16 (January 1942): 46-52; Allan Bogue, 32. Huttman, "British Meat Imports," pp. "The Progress of the Cattle Industry in Ontario 254-55. during the Eighteen Eighties," Agricultural 33. United Kingdom, Statutes, "An Act to History 21 (July 1947): 163-69. Consolidate the Contagious Diseases (Animals) 23. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers, Acts, 1892-1893," 57 & 58 Viet., cap. 57, 1880-82, "The Joint Report of Mr. Clare Read 12: 658. and Mr. Albert Pell, M.P.," 19: 11-50. 34. Osgood, Day of the Cattleman, p. 171. 24. General James S. Brisbin, The Beef 35. Concern was voiced in both Britain and Bonanza; or, How to Get Rich on the Plains the United States about the grip these com­ (Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott, 1881; reprint, panies held on the meat trade. See, for instance, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959). U.S. Congress, House, Report of the Commis­ 25. James McDonald, Food from the Far sioner on Corporations in the Beef Industry, West (New York, 1878). 58th Cong., 3d sess., 1905, H. Doc. 382; U.K., 26. Jackson, "British Interests," p. 187. Parliamentary Papers, 1909, "Report of the 27. Dale, Range Cattle Industry, p. 89. Departmental Committee on Combinations in 28. The three major companies were the Ox­ the Meat Trade," vol. 15, cd. 4643. A classic ley, the Walrond, and the Quorn ranch com­ analysis of the American Meat Trust is Simon panies. See John Roderick Craig, Ranching with G. Hanson, Argentine Meat and the British THE ORIGIN OF RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA 91

Market (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University 42. Paul F. Sharp, Whoop-Up Country: The Press, 1938). Canadian-American West, 1865-1885 (Minne­ 36. H. E. Bronson, "The Saskatchewan Meat apolis: University of Minnesota Pr~ss, 1955), Packing Industry: Some Historical Highlights," especially "The Law in Choteau County," Saskatchewan History 26 (Winter 1973): 24- pp.107-32. 38; Hugh J. E. Abbott, "The Marketing of Live 43. Edward C. Abbott and Helena Hunting­ Stock in Canada" (master's thesis, University of ton Smith, We Pointed them North: Recollec­ Toronto, 1923). tions of a Cowpuncher (New York: Farrar and 37. Breen, "Turner Thesis and Canadian Rinehart, 1939), p. 231. West," pp. 147-58; Patrick A. Dunae, Gentle­ 44. Simon M. Evans, "American Cattlemen men Emigrants (Vancouver: Douglas and on the Canadian Range, 1874-1914," Prairie McIntyre, 1981). Forum 4, no. 1 (1979): 121-35. 38. James MacGregor, "Lord Lorne in Al­ 45. For a review, see C. J. Christianson, berta," Alberta Historical Review 12 (1964): Early Rangemen (Lethbridge: Southern Print­ 1-15; C. I. Ritchie, "George Lane-One of the ing Co., 1973); W.J. Redmond, "The Texas Big Four," Canadian Cattlemen 3 (September Longhorn on Canadian Range," Canadian 1940): 443; Sheilagh S. Jameson, "The Social Cattlemen 3 (December 1938): 112. Elite of the Ranching Community and Cal­ 46. See, for instance, Wallace Stegner, Wolf gary," in Frontier Calgary: Town, City, and willow (New York: Viking Press, 1966), pp. Region, 1875-1914, ed. by Anthony W. Ras­ 127-38; G. Shepherd, West of Yesterday porich and Henry C. Klassen (Calgary, Alta.: (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965). McClelland and Stewart West, 1975), pp. 57-70. 47. Robert F. Berkhofer, A Behavioral Ap­ 39. Athearn, Westward the Briton; Marshall proach to Historical Analysis (New York: Sprague, A Gallery of Dudes (Boston: Little, Free Press, 1969), p. 231. Brown, 1966). 48. Terry G. Jordan, "Early Northeast Texas 40. Jackson, "British Interests." and the Evolution of Western Ranching," An­ 41. Atherton, Cattle Kings, p. 66; Agnes nals of the Association of American Geograph­ Wright Spring, The Cheyenne Club (Kansas ers 67 (March 1977): 66-87; Jordan, Trails to City: Don Ornduff, 1961); Lewis G. Thomas, Texas. "The Rancher and the City: Calgary and the 49. Donald W. Meinig, "American Wests: Cattlemen, 1883-1914," Transactions of the Preface to a Geographical Introduction," Royal Society of Canada 6 (June 1968): 203- Annals of the Association of American Geog­ 15. raphers 62 (June 1972): 159-84.