University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations, Theses, & Student Research, History, Department of Department of History 11-1998 Cattle, Environment, and Economic Change: A History of Cherry County, Nebraska’s Cattle Industry, from Earliest Times to 1940 Gail Lorna DiDonato University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historydiss Part of the American Material Culture Commons, Meat Science Commons, and the United States History Commons DiDonato, Gail Lorna, "Cattle, Environment, and Economic Change: A History of Cherry County, Nebraska’s Cattle ndusI try, from Earliest Times to 1940" (1998). Dissertations, Theses, & Student Research, Department of History. 78. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historydiss/78 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, & Student Research, Department of History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. CATTLE, ENVIRONMENT, AND ECONOMIC CHANGE: A HISTORY OF CHERRY COUNTY, NEBRASKA’S CATTLE INDUSTRY, FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO 1940 by Gail Loma DiDonato A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: History Under the Supervision of Professor John Wunder and Professor Benjamin Rader Lincoln, Nebraska November, 1998 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DM! Number: 9917827 Copyright 1999 by DiDonato, Gail Loraa All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9917827 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DISSERTATION TITLE CATTLE, ENVIRONMENT, AND EOONCMLC CHANGE: A HISTORY OF CHERRY COUNTY. NEBRASKA's CATTLE INDUSTRY, FROM EARLIEST TIMER TO 1940 BY Gail L a m a DiDonato SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: APPROVED DATE John Wunder Typejt+Jame Signature!k~r- Benjamin Rader Typed Name Signature Harl Dalstrom Typed Name £ it- °\h Signatureignature f £ Edward Honrap Typed Name Signature Ann Mari May Typed Name — ~ z j A if Signature JL- 9s l Hugh W hitt Typed Name GRADUATE COLLEGE Cfe UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CATTLE, ENVIRONMENT, AND ECONOMIC CHANGE: A HISTORY OF THE CATTLE INDUSTRY IN CHERRY COUNTY, NEBRASKA, FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO 1940 Gail Loma DiDonato, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 1998 Advisor: John Wunder A modem cattle industry in Cherry County, Nebraska, developed as challenges of land use and pressures of economic change demanded new and flexible adaptation to the unique environment. Located in the Sandhills, a region only opened to legal white settlement after Indian removal in 1878, the area passed through phases of occupation. Open-range cattlemen drawn by lucrative local markets gave way to struggles over land use between farmers and ranchers. Early twentieth century legislation, the 1904 Kinkaid Act, designed to promote farm settlement, in the end, benefited ranchers the most. As the wedge to gain legal access to land ownership, it opened the county to development of a modem cattle economy. Throughout the first three decades of the twentieth century, changing land policy, market fluctuation, and agricultural depression brought about modem developments. Consolidation of small land parcels into larger and more efficient privately owned ranches gave structure to a growing cattle industry. Larger spreads opened the way to the application of scientific land management and conservation practices. At the same time, improved breeding of livestock and specialized animal production allowed ranchers to meet the demands of a changing market economy. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Adjustments spurred by government policy and economic challenge continued to advance modem development throughout the 1930s. New Deal programs, such as soil conservation, introduced both better resource management and another example of government regulation. However, programs that instigated production controls did little assuage the drain on ranchers’ returns. Local efforts to gain a foothold into the marketing phase o f their production finally succeeded by the end of the decade when a regional organization provided an effective tool. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS Illustrations-Maps vi List of Tables vii Acknowledgment viii Introduction ix The Early Years 1 Chapter 1. Defining an Environment 5 Chapter 2. Bison and Cattle, Indians and Cowmen 37 Chapter 3. Prelude to the Modem Cattle Industry 65 The Middle Years 109 Chapter 4. Ranching and Control of the Land, 1900-1930 111 Chapter 5. Evolution of Modem Resource Management, 1900-1930 162 The Later Years 210 Chapter 6. The Cattle Economy, 1920-1940 213 Chapter 7. Roads to Market, 1920-1940 247 Chapter 8. Ways to Market, 1920-1940 285 Conclusion 314 Bibliography 322 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ELLUSTRATIONS-MAPS 1. Sandhills Region of Nebraska xxiv 2. Open-Range Ranches in North Central Region o f Sandhills, 1877-1880 60 3. Cherry County and Adjacent Counties, 1890 75 4. Cherry County Area Covered in 1885 Nebraska State Agricultural Census, 1885 and 1882, 1883, and 1885 Valentine-Fort Niobrara Land Entries 79 5. Nebraska Land and Feeding Company, Spade, Overton, and C Bar Ranches 104 6. African-American Community in Cherry County, 1902-23 126 7. Charlie Metz Ranch, Cherry County 151 8. Normal Precipitation in Nebraska, 1898-1932 186 9. Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, Cherry County 194 10.1915 Nebraska State Railroad Commission Map o f Cherry County and Vicinity 249 11. Major roads in and adjacent to Cherry County, ca. 1919 263 12. Revised Highway Map o f Cherry County, 1940 273 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES 1. Population Statistics for Cherry County, Nebraska, 1900-1920 113 2. Cherry County, Nebraska, Land Statistics, 1900-1940 119 3. Annual Precipitation for Cherry County and Vicinity, 1930-1938 185 4. Cattle Population in Cherry County, 1930-1937 205 5. Average Value Per Acre o f Land in Cherry County, 1910-1935 241 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to thank my supervisory committee for their guidance and support. In particular, Professors John Wunder and Harl Dalstrom who encouraged my vision of the Sandhills cattle industry, gave valuable insight, and listened to the flow of my ideas. I salute their scholarly expertise and their kindness. Without the trust and faith of my husband Chuck DiDonato and the caring, enthusiasm, and proof reading skills of my very special friends, Athena and Barry Combs, the joy of completing this study would not have been so sweet Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IX INTRODUCTION As a fourth generation Sandhills rancher, Dave Hamilton knows the importance of the willingness to change. His family’s spread covers almost 10,000 acres in southern Cherry County and northern Thomas County, and in his line of business, “you either improve or you go backwards.”1 Hamilton admits that when his great-grandfather and his four brothers arrived in the Sandhills in the mid-1890s, the idea o f homesteading on cheap land left little room for environmentally sound practices. However, that changed with subsequent generations who have been committed to improved resource management since the 1920s. By the 1940s aggressive ditching took place to facilitate irrigation, and by the 1960s, range conservation programs, such as reseeding grasses and erosion control, became a way of life for the modem rancher. Present day ranchers are keenly aware of their fragile and unforgiving environment. With 750 brood cows and over twice as many calves and yearlings, Hamilton and his father know that it takes a sizable amount of productive acreage to maintain the scale o f their operation. With only 16 to 17 inches of precipitation a year, they turned to a new emphasis on irrigation. Rapid advances in the technology since the 1960s spurred wide acceptance of concepts associated with irrigation. Hamilton, addressing a water resources seminar at the University of Nebraska in 1984, extolled the benefits of self-propelled center-pivot irrigation systems to his operation. Explaining that 'Dave Thomas, “Life in the Sandhills: A Rancher’s Point of View,” Proceedings o f the 1984 Water Resources Seminar (Lincoln, Nebraska: Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1984), 85-88, Heritage o f the Sandhills, Archive, James Ducey, ed. University ofNebraska- Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources, http://WWW. ERNA. UNL. EDU (199.240.193.217/), 3. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. two center-pivots