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Rangelands of the Great Before European Settlement

Item Type text; Article

Authors Hart, Richard H.; Hart, James A.

Citation Hart, R. H., & Hart, J. A. (1997). of the before European settlement. Rangelands, 19(1), 4-11.

Publisher Society for Range Management

Journal Rangelands

Rights Copyright © Society for Range Management.

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Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/640443 4 RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997

Rangelands of the Great Plains Before European Settlement

Richard H. Hart and James A. Hart

"Elysian Fields" or "Barrenness, in a paraphrase or synthesis of their Canadian River (Figure 1). He Inhospitality, and Despair"? comments. Here, in those early trav- described a village of "More than ellers' own words (and their own twelve hundred houses.. .surrounded couple from the East stopped at spelling), is what they saw. on all sides by fields of maize...in our Central Plains Experimental many places the grass was high ARange near Nunn, enough to conceal a horse" (Bolton and asked one of our technicians, It's Been Shortgrass for a Long Time 1916). "What did this country look like before But the early explorers of the Great the white man came?" He grinned and Plains that, then as Grass to a horse's belly or taller was agreed now, they answered "You mean before or after were dominated by short grasses; blue the 6 million buffalo came characteristic, not of the Great Plains, through?" but of the grama and buffalograss in the north, These two illustrate two dis- to the east. questions In Oñate crossed the Plains to mesquite or galleta grass in the south. parate views of the Great Plains 1601, the tallgrass prairie on the lower Coronado, in 1540—42, led the first before European settlement, before party of Europeans to penetrate the the pioneers and the trail herds. Much of the conflict over what the Plains Souris R. should look like now is rooted in dis- agreement over what they looked like then. The first European impressions of the Plains were recorded in journals of trappers, traders, explorers, and natu- ralists from the late 16th to the mid- 19th centuries. What were the Plains like when they saw them? Were they "Elysian fields of tremendous areas of luxuriant grass" (Fremont 1845) or were they "enormous plains which in winterare white with snow and in sum- mer are gray with a saline alkali dust [which] preserve the common charac- teristics of barrenness, inhospitality, and despair" (Doyle 1930)? Were they covered with grass up to a horse's belly or higher, or were they covered with short grass showing the effects of centuries of uncontrolled grazing by , and other native herbivores? The question will not be settled by appeals to ecological theory or special pleading by the friends or foes of the livestock industry. We must turn to first-hand eyewitness accounts of those early travellers on the Plains. Frequently,we will quote directly from their journals and official reports, to avoid any possible appearance of bias Ag. 1. The riversof the GreatPlains were pathways for exploration. RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997 5

John C. Fremont (1845) was on the Republican in 1843, 8 days' travel above the mouth of the Smoky Hill at about the present-day - Colorado border, and reported "Among a variety of grasses which today made their first appearance, I noticed...buffalograss....", and later mentions "...the short sward of the buf- falo grass..." William Franklin (1979), on the Platte in 1845 with Col. Stephen Kearny's expedition, wrote "...there was scarcely any grass on the hills but the buffalo grass and that was parched by the sun." Phillip St. George Cooke and Henry Carleton also accompanied Kearny up the Platte and down the in 1845. Cooke commented "the buffalo Fig. 2. The originalcaption of this illustration reads "Coronado and his band ofcoura- (1857) has been before but we have geous followers wandering over the burning sands of the great Southwest Desert us, found some scant in search of fabled cities and gold and gems" (Barker et a!. 1934).However, the grazing;—it is but- expedition's journal of 1541 recorded notdeserts but where "The grass falograss,—very backward, and looks grows tall near the lakes; away from them it is very short, a span or less..." like curled gray horsehair..." and echoes (Castaneda 1966). Pattie "...its sod is a near approach to woodenpavements." shortgrass country of the Great Plains lages on the just below pre- Randolph Marcy (1850), in the (Castañeda 1966); De Vaca (Bandelier sent-day Lake Sakakawea. From the Panhandle in 1849, reported "Not a 1905), De Soto (Hudson 1993), and La Mandan villages, Larocque travelled , shrub, or any other object, either Salle (Joutel 1962) had only skirted the up the Little Missouri and the Powder, animate or inanimate, relieved.. .the southern fringes of the Plains. along the front of the Bighorn dreaded 'Llano Estacado'. ...The only Coronado's party may have travelled Mountains to the present site of herbage upon these barren plains is a as far as Kansas from the Spanishset- Billings, , then returned down very short buffalo grass." In 1852, tlements in New , although the Yellowstone and the Missouri to Marcy (1938) wrote "The grass upon Donoghue (1929) maintains Coronado the villages. He complained "It is the Staked is generally a very never got out of Texas. Castaneda amazing how very barren the ground short variety of mezquite, called buffa- wrote 'The country we passed through is between the Powder River and the lo-grass, from one to two inches in is and spacious level. The grass grows lesser Missouri...Our horsesare nearly length." He concluded "The range of tall near the lakes; away from them it is starved" (Wood and Thiessen 1985). the grama grass, so far as observa- a or less..." my very short, span (Figure 2). James Pattie (1833), a traveler and tions have extended, is bounded...on he is the southern teller of Although describing tall tales from Kentucky, grum- the east by about the meridian of 98° Plains, the aspect was very much the bled about the hard surface of the west longitude Marcythought well of same from north to south. On the Platte in . the nutritional qualities of short Trudeau, a trader on the upper 1824, he wrote "The are cov- grass, plains describing it as "most excellent forage Missouri in 1803—1805, described ered with a short, fine grass, about "Vast and from four inches for animals" and describing "...a luxuri- high prairie, separated high, of such a kind, as to ant sward of the river low and humid be to the hoofs of ani- nutritious mezquite grass, by plains, pre- very injurious which sent to the eye a monotonous mals Pattie also told of of affords the very best pasturage packs for animals expanse...small arid hills, the greater hundreds of wolves, "white as snow along the Washita River in 1852 part bare or covered with short grass- and big as sheep," and reported about (Marcy 1938). George who was to es" (Abel 1921). In 1805, Francois- three horrendous Indian fights per McClellan, command the Antoine Larocque, Charles McKenzie, week. In 1839,a Swisstraveler named Army of the Potomac in the Civil War David Thompson, and Alexander Wislizenus (1912) found "...butfalo- until he exhausted Lincoln's patience Henry, who we'll encounter later, were grass...a very short, delicate grass, (twice), accompaniedMarcy, who later fur traders with the Northwest growing in isolated bunches ..." as far became his chiefof staff and father-in- Company, stationed at the Mandan vil- east as Grand Island. law. 6 RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997

The military types seldom had the (1965) wrote of the country west of regarded as indicators of mismanage- knowledge needed for extensive Salina, Kansas; "...as settlers ment, but in the 19th century indicated botanizing,and tended to mention only advance, and domestic herds take the heavy grazing by bison or rodent dis- the showier to the neglect of the place of the big game, the coarser, turbance. grasses. James MaIm (1961), geogra- more vigorous, and deeper-rooted and at the of grasses destroy buffalograss and take pher ecologist University There Were a Lot of Bison Kansas, snickered at Fremont's com- its place." ment about Prickly pear cactus is sometimes "...hunting plants among There were a lot of bison; regarded as an indicator of overgraz- certainly the grass" (Fremont 1845). The terms not the 60 million often cited, but prob- ing by livestock, but it was present buffalograss, grama, and mezquite ably 15 or 20 million (Cushman and were used before a cow or a sheep ever saw the grass quite interchangeably Jones 1988, Shaw 1995) or as many for the short differ- Great Plains. Prickly pearwas record- grasses. Finally, ed and down the Plains from 1804 as 28 to 30 million (Flores 1991). ences in the grass species recorded up Travellers' tales of the herds are by Larocque (Wood and Thiessen great by the various expeditions may reflect so well known it is to 1985) to 1849 by Stansbury (1852). unnecessary differences in location and , as Lewis and Clark on the repeat them here (Figure 4). well as differences in botanical knowl- (1983), upper on Missouri in 1805, recorded "The prick- Bison, occasion, grazed the and G.K. into the edge. Stephen Long Warren, ly pear is now in full blume and forms prairie right ground. of Long's Peak and Gettysburg fame one of the beauties as well as the Hornaday (1889) reported that buffalo respectively, were among the better greatest pests of the plains" (Figure 3). "at times so completely consumed the botanists and recorded most of the On the South Platte just above the herbage of the plains that detach- major grass species still present on forks, the Long expedition found that ments of the Army found the Plains. "Prickly pears became more and more it difficult to find sufficient grass for The military journalists seldom men- abundant. ..they occurred in such their mules and horses." tioned the taller but less-abundant extensive patches as considerably to Carleton (1943), on the Platte in mid-grasses such as western wheat- retard our progress, it being wholly 1845, wrote "The grass as we pro- grass, needleandthread, and sideoats impractible to urge our horses across ceeded seemed to grow poorer and grama. But they were there, then as them" (James 1823). poorer...not enough forage on a mile now; better-trained naturalists identi- Grasses which appear on heavily- square...to have furnished even one fied them (Table 1). Absence of these grazed or rangeland dis- squadron" [about 100—120 horses]. grasses indicates serious overgrazing, turbed by the activities of rodents also Some of the forage had probably been but they return with better manage- were present (Table 1). These grass- eaten by the horses and oxen of emi- ment. In 1867, railroad man W. A. Bell es, such as foxtail barley, are currently grant parties on the Oregon Trail.

Table 1. Grassescollected or recorded, 1810—1867,on the Great Plains.

Reported by' Brad Long Nutt Max Frem Warr Bell Yea Species 1810 1819 1819 1832 1842 1856 1867 Shortgrasses Blue grama + + + + + Buffalograss + + + + Falsebuffalograss + + + Mesquitegrass (galleta) + + + Midgrasses Needle-and-thread + + + Otherneedlegrasses + + + + Western wheatgrass + + Sideoats grams + + + + Grasses of heavily-grazed or disturbed rangelands Annual barley + + + + + Annual bromegrass + + + Bottlebrush squirreltail + Dropseeds + + + Redthreeawn + + + Other threeawns + + + Sandburs + + Sixweeks grass + + + Tumblegrass + + 'Brad = Bradbu,y (1819), Long = Long (James 1823, Goodman and Lawson 1995), Null = Nuttall (1979), Max = Maximilian (1843), Frem = Fremont (1845), Waif = Warren(1875), Bell= Bell (1965). RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997 7

gathered on the Little Colorado in such numbers that they had eaten the coun- try clean. Goodnight said, "They had remained until the grass was gone, and had died from starvation by thou- sands and thousands. The dead buf- faloes, which extended for a hundred miles or more, were so thick they resembled a pumpkin ..." Although there was still good grass on the Rio Concho, 30 miles across the divide to the southwest, the bison had stayed on the Colorado. The impact of bison on water quality will be discussed later. Regardless of impact, bison were an essential com- ponent of the Plains and one of the factors, along with fire and climate, which shaped the plant com- munities of the Plains (Larson 1940, Ellison 1960).

Fig. 3. Prickly pearcactus was present beforea cow or sheep ever saw the Great Little Wood and Less Water (or Plains. Lewis and Clark (1983), on the upper Missouri in 1805, recorded "The Vice Versa) pricklypear is now in full blumeand forms one ofthe beautiesas well as the great- estpests of the plains." Water was scarcer than grass on the uplands. The smaller streams were often Maximilian However, not too many parties had deer," but he was a pretty good plains- dry; (1843) found "All the used the trail by 1845; only 5,000 man for a middle-aged German city small rivers were completely dried Americans were living in the Oregon feller, so maybe he could. The paint- up" by mid-July, 1833, near the junc- tion of the Milk country by that year (Current et al. ings of Karl Bodmer, who accompa- and Missouri Rivers. 1971). Trying to decide whether bison nied Maximilian, are among the best The larger rivers usually contained or emigrant livestock decimated the records of the early 19th century water, but the quality of water in forage illustrates the difficulty of defin- Plains. streamsof all sizes was highly vari- ing "before European settlement. At even this early date, the commer- able. Lewis and Clark commentedthat Less well known are the other cial exploitation of bison by both the water of the Poplar River in Montana impacts of bison and othergrazers on European settlers and Native was "transparent, it being the the Great Plains. Vermont lawyer Americans was well established. first of this discription that I have yet seen Thomas Farnham somehow contrived Maximilian reported "The consumption discharge itself into the to go from Independence,Missouri to of this animal is immense in North Missouri", but the Yellowstone was "turbid" and Oregon via the Santa Fe Trail, then up America...ln a recent year, the (Lewis Clark 1983). the Front Range, over the Rockies into [American] Fur Company sent 42,000 Botanist John Bradbury (1819) report- Brown's Hole, and then along the of these hides down the river...Fort ed the Cannon-ball was "muddy." North Platte to the Oregon Trail. He Union alone consumes about 600 to Thomas Nuttall, the first naturalist to commented (1841) that the prairie 800 buffaloes annually, and the other explore the Arkansas River in 1819, along the Arkansas River in 1839 was forts in proportion. The numerous found the Arkansas and the Canadian "continually crossed by deep paths Indian tribes subsist almost entirely on "red and muddy" (Nuttall 1979).James made by the buffalo..." Prince these animals [and] sell their skins Hildreth and Hugh Evans accompa- Maximilian of Wied (1843) observed in after retaining a sufficient supply for nied Col. Henry Dodge's expedition in 1833 "All over the plain [in present their clothing, tents, & c..." 1834; Hildreth (1836) described the ] there were deeply trod- Bison were great travellers, but were Washita as "of a muddy red color." den paths of the buffaloes" and " they truly migratory? Charles Edwin James (1823), with the Long and deer had traversed the prairie in Goodnight (Haley 1936) told a story expedition, wrote that the water of the all directions and trodden many paths which casts some doubt on this. The upper Canadian was "...mixed with so to the river." I'm not sure how he told spring of 1867 was very dry in the large a quantity of red earth, as to give buffalo paths from those of "elks and Texas Panhandle, and bison herds it the colour of florid blood." Captain Howard Stansbury led a military party 8 RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997

etables of any kind wherewithto kindle a fire for cooking. We were absolutely compelled to dry the dung of the buffa- lo as the best article we could procure for cooking..." (Wyeth 1833). Young Jamie Wyeth was unhappy because the West wasn't nearly as much fun and lots harder work than he had anticipated when he signed on with Uncle Nathaniel's expedition. Larpenteur (1898), on the Platte in 1833, wrote; "...there was no wood to be found about camp, and all the fuel we could obtain was the stalks of some large dried weeds, the wild sun- flower..." Larpenteur was described by his editor as a reliable observer but "never on good terms with English orthographyand syntax". Along the Platte, wood was scarce Fig. 4. Bison were an essential component of the Plainsecosystem, and had great in 1845; Carleton wrote "The impactson vegetation, microtopography, and waterquality. (1943) men wading across to a small Island across the Plains to where thrown and...on the for the night's supply of wood. ..there Utah, they ashore, points of no timber the main the shores of the Great Salt islands." Maximilian in 1832 being upon mapped (1843) land..."Other once bare of Lake. He noted in of 1849 '...the counted and more of the streams, July "...1,800 , now are well wooded. Cousin water of the South Platte was perfectly ' dead bodies...in one place." Charlie Fremont (actually it's his wife opake with thick yellow mud" Bison adversely affected water quali- Jessie Benton Fremont that's my kin) (Stansbury 1852). ty in all . "Bisons...wereseen, Alexander be in was somewhat of a flake but he had Henry may responsi- coming from every quarter to the learned to determine latitude and lon- ble for the original muddy river story. stagnant pools...in the channel of the He wrote in "The water of the Canadian river. The water of these gitude at West Point so he usually 1806; knew where he was. He Missourie is so with was of course too to drink" exactly impregnated filthy records (1845) that found "no earth...that a stranger would scarcely (James 1823). Earlier, James had writ- they venture to drink it...ln wood" on Crow Creek just below the the winter...when ten "When Fountain Creek [near pre- of the water is not so it is sent to present site Cheyenne on 13 July terribly thick, Fountain, Colorado] began 1842 and cooked their dinner over a not to the liking of the natives, and rise, it was soon covered with such a mix a certain buffalo chip fire, but trees are plentiful they frequently quantity quantity of bison's dung.. .that the the creek of with the water drink. In the water could be seen." along today (Figure 5). clay they scarcely the Platte near spring, when the ice drifts down, the Farnham between the Little Along Kearney, (1841), , trees were rare as recently water is very thick and muddy, and Arkansas and the Arkansas in 1839, as 1938 (Johnson 1994), although the quite to their taste" (Coues 1897). wrote; "The water—disgusting remem- Not action of ice may have been more only ice drifted down in the brance! There was none, save what than fire in Mackenzie wrote in 1804 we from the thick important reducing tree spring. "in scooped puddles, stands. Trees had increased the both sides of the River are and with buffalo offal." In the greatly Spring yellow 1986. in several covered with rotten Texas Panhandle in by places 1852, Marcy The Missouri was bordered tim- carcasses and Skeletons of at a small by Buffaloes, (1938) "...encamped pond, ber or brush for much of its Elks & c..." (Wood and Thiessen a which we were length, containing liquid although the surrounding prairie was 1985). The journal of Lewis and Clark obliged to make use of, but it had A for 9 1805 relates more the of the treeless. couple of weeks above the (1983) April appearance drainings Mandan on the "...found a number of carcases of villages the froma stable-yardthan water." in Lewis and Clark Buffaloe on on like and was 1805, (1983) lying shore...lodged Wood, grass water, "A most view of the shore by the high water when the river scarce except along the streams, and enjoyed delightfull broke In country, the whole of which except the up..." 1810 botanist James was not always plentiful there. "For the formed the to notice...the of six hundred we vally by Missouri is void of Bradbury (1819) "began space miles, may timber or underbrush." number of drowned buffaloes be said to have been of the They reported great deprived timber, cottonwood with an that were on the Missouri river; benefits of two of the elements, fire mostly floating undergrowth of willow, as far as the vast numbers of them were also and water...we had no wood or veg- RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997 9

On the southern Plains, the pres- ence of mesquite has been credited to overgrazing by livestock, but Marcy (1850, 1938) found "mezquite" trees all across the Texas Panhandle in 1849 and on the North Fork of the Red River in southwest in 1852. He wrote "I have never seen much of this wood [mesquite] above the thirty- sixth degree of north latitude [just below the present east-west boundary between the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles]; but south of this it appears to increase in quantity and size as far as the 28th degree [the lati- tude of Corpus Christi, Texas]." Hurtado had reported "many mesquite bushes" along the Canadian River in in 1715 (Thomas 1935). In 1806, on his way home from a Mexicanjail, Zeb Pike (1966) reported "musqueet' between San 5. On 13, 1842, Fremont found "no wood"on present-day Fig. July (1845) Crow Creekjust below Antonio and Austin, Texas. where Cheyenne now stands. Plentyof good-sized willows and some cottonwoods now grow there. "The Fire Lookd Truly mouth of Milk River, but cautioned that prairie, with no water or wood" on the Tremendious" "one fifth of the bottom lands being uplands. Coming back down the Clear covered with timber is considered a Fork of the Brazos, they encountered Fire was ever-present on the Plains large proportion." no trees except mesquite, which were (Figure 6). Prairie fires can be fierce; In 1833, Maximilian (1843) was on plentiful, until near the present site of Madson (1982) tells of burning his little the Missouri just above Wheeler, Abilene, Texas. patch of prairie and his wife remarking South Dakota, where "...with difficulty we penetrated through the of poplar and willow on the bank...from 300 to 400 paces to the hills...(the val- ley) was covered with high grass..." The river at the Big Bend was "...bor- dered with poplars and willows.' He noted and ashes at the mouth of Heart River; four days later, "...the wood was beautiful, lofty, and dark..." The mouth of the Yellowstone was "bordered with a fine wood of tall poplars, with willow thickets.. tall poplar groves and willow thickets on the banks of the [Missouri] river..." In 1852, Marcy (1938) reported cot- tonwood trees along the North Fork of the Red River, the Canadian River, and the Salt Fork of the Brazos, but they became few and far between as his party approached the Llano Estacado. Marcy (1850) reported "good wood, water, and grass" on the banks of the Canadian River near where it now crosses the Texas- Fig. 6. Fire was ever-present on the Plains, and was probably responsible for the lack oftimber along manystreams. Oklahoma state line, but "high rolling 10 RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997

'You know, when I've painted pictures of prairie fires, I've always made the flames only half as high as they should be...' Lewis and Clark (1983) observed in 1804 "The prarie (near the Mandan villages) got on fire and went with Such Violenc & Speed as to Catch a man & woman & burnthem to death .. .this fire passed us at 8 oClock and lookd truly tremendious." Also in 1804, Larocque on the Souris River wrote "The plains being on fire to the South West, & the Wind blowing from that Quarter, brought such volumes of smoke, as prevented us from seeing 100 Yds before us...Plains all burnt, except some spots along the Coule'..." and "...the fire appears on both sides of the Missouri just above the mouth of the Little Missouri at a distance West and North" (Wood and Thiessen 1985). Mackenzie, who was with Larocque, ".. observed whole herds of Buffaloes Fig. 7. Most of the changeson the Plainshave been producedby urbanization and not with their hair singed--some were crop , grazing. blind; and half roasted carcasses strewed our way" (Wood and Thiessen It'll be Shortgrass for a Long Time The Plains will continue to change, 1985). (Maybe) as they have in the past. As recently In 1810 on the Platte, Bradbury as 10,000 years BP, the northern In much of the Great (1819) "...observed in the night the conclusion, Great Plains were forested (Dix 1962, reflection of immense fires, occa- Plains before European settlement Axelrod 1985). Much more recently, sioned the looked about like it looks now. The during the drouth of 1933-1941, the by burning prairies..." of the has Stansbury (1852) wrote "...the country vegetation uplands hardly shortgrass prairie spread 160-240 km along the Platte, for more than three changed; they are still dominated by into what was previously tallgrass short with a of hundred miles, had been completely grasses, seasoning prairie (Weaver and Bruner 1954). In devastated by these conflagrations, mid-grasses. The pronghorn have the immediate future, global warming insomuch that our animals came near returned, but cattle have replaced and doubling of the CO2 concentration bison perishing for wantof herbage." and elk. Cattle poop in the of the atmosphere may produce even Evans wrote in 1835; "It is the creek just as bison once did, but they greater shifts in the Great Plains Hugh in opinion of many well acquainted with seldom drown it. . The fires no the praries that the annual fall fireing great longer sweep across the and the of them by the Indian has caused the shortgrass, hydrol- Literature Cited scarcity of timber, indeed it appears ogy of streams has been changed as water is impounded for recreation and verry natural from the circumstance of Abel, A.H. 1921. Trudeau's description of their being timber near water courses . As a result, trees have the Upper Missouri. Valley and wet places where the fire cannot increasedalong many streams. Hist. Rev. 8:149—179. have access..." (Perrine 1927). The major changes have been pro- Axelrod, D.l. 1985. Rise of the Franklin in "The duced by crop agriculture and urban- , central . Bot. Rev. (1979) agreed 1845; 51:163—201. little Arkansas has high banks like all ization. Grasslands have been turned side down" and Bandelier, F.R. 1905. The Journey of the timbered streams, and generally "green by the plow Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and His fields of wheat and those that have low banks are not tim- replaced by alfalfa, Companions from to the Pacific, bered. The reason of this is, I suppose grain sorghum (Figure 7). Buffalo wal- 1528—1536. A.S. Barnes & Co., New that the fires reach to the water's edge lows have been replaced by circles of York. in the case of the low banks while irrigated crops, buffalo trails by four- Barker, E.C., W.P. Webb, and W.E. Dodd. 1934. The Growth of a Nation. where a stream has high banks it is lane interstate highways, and Native Row, Peterson and Co., Evanston, IL. intercepted by these banks, and any American villages by cities. But once of from the cities and the the (Figure reprinted permission McGraw- timber that may be growing on the away farms, Hill, ). creek is saved." Plains remain. RANGELANDS 19(1), February 1997 11

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