The Paradise Syndrome: Environment, Boosters and Ranching along the Montana/Alberta Borderlands A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan By Matt Todd September 2017 © Copyright Matthew Ryan Todd, 2017. All rights reserved Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Request for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Room 116-110 Science Place University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9 i Abstract The history of cattle ranching on the Great Plains combines climate, grasslands, water, people and animals. Unfortunately, it also includes environmental missteps and catastrophes which has led to numerous negative histories that end on an environmental low-point. The resulting studies tend to blame rancher’s greed for damaging their environment, as opposed to finding an alternative explanation for their actions. Ranching histories, therefore, often follow a decline framework. The overarching message for these types of histories is that human interaction with the natural world is inherently negative. In short, historians have not been overly kind to cattle ranchers. This study complicates that history by examining why ranchers made the mistakes that they did and how they tried to correct them. It does not end on the environmental low point for the cattle industry but looks past it to consider what, if anything, was done to improve ranching methods. The discussion considers how ranching in Alberta and Montana started and why ranchers operated the way that they did. It argues that ranchers in both places started their operations with a fundamentally flawed understanding of the environment because the climate, grasslands and economic potential of the area had been a favorite topic for boosters during the 1870-1880s. What resulted was the importation of thousands of cattle and inappropriate ranching methods. After several years of temporary equilibrium in 1886/1887 a drought and hard winter occurred. By spring it was realized that thousands of cattle had frozen or starved to death where they stood. However, the disaster was not the end of the cattle industry in either Montana or Alberta. Ranchers on both sides of the border tried (often successfully) to adapt to their environment in order to continue in their industry. It is the recognition of a flawed understanding of the environment and then trying to adapt to it that forms the backbone of this work. This study is also a bioregional history of the nineteenth century Montana and Alberta borderlands. As such, it examines how people and governments responded to an environment and climate misrepresented by booster literature and government policy. The work itself is bioregional, yet also deals with broader ideas of nation building, borderland economics, the concept of natural disaster, and indigenous displacement. ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge my parents, Rod and Betty, for their unwavering support over the last 37 years, and over the last seven in particular. I could never have finished my PhD without you. I would also like to thank my supervisor Geoff Cunfer. I have been your graduate student for longer than I care to admit and your support and encouragement was essential to my ability to successfully complete this process. My advisory committee, Bill Waiser, Jim Clifford, and Ken Belcher were all helpful in the final push to make my dissertation into something that I am proud of, thank you all for your insightful comments. A very special thank you goes to my external examiner, Dr. Shannon Stunden-Bower Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta. The comments and suggestions from your thoughtful reading of my dissertation challenged me to look at my work in a new context and is something for which I am very appreciative. Lastly, my partner Ona. Thank you so much for your support through this process, your encouragement and insights were essential to my success. iii Table of Contents Permission to Use i Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv Chapter 1: Historiography of Ranching, Borderlands and Environment 1 Chapter 2: Precursor to Northwestern Plains Ranching: Creation of a Borderlands Economy 63 Chapter 3: Creation of a Ranching Industry on the Northern Plains 85 Chapter 4: Ranching in a Misunderstood Alberta Environment 105 Chapter 5: Cattle King(s) and Booster Grasslands in Montana 132 Chapter 6: The Cochrane, Walrond and A7 169 Chapter 7: Adapting after the Hard Winter 205 Chapter 8: Conclusion 239 Bibliography 245 iv Map of study area 6 Map of Canadian Ranches 107 Map of Conrad Korhs’ ranch 133 Sheep Boundary Map 184 v Chapter 1: Historiography of Ranching, Borderlands and Environment The Montana/Alberta Borderlands Geography and Climate The history of cattle ranching on the Great Plains is a combination of climate, grasslands, water, people, and animals. It also includes environmental misinterpretation, flawed land-use, and catastrophes which has led to numerous negative histories that end on an environmental low- point. The resulting studies tend to blame rancher’s greed for damaging their environment, as opposed to finding an alternative explanation for their actions. Ranching histories, therefore, often follow a decline framework. The overarching message for these types of histories is that human interaction with the natural world is inherently negative. In short, historians have not been overly kind to cattle ranchers. This study complicates that history by examining why ranchers made the mistakes that they did and how they tried to correct them. It does not end on the environmental low point for the cattle industry but looks past it to consider what, if anything, was done to improve ranching methods. The discussion considers how ranching in Alberta and Montana started and why ranchers operated the way that they did. It argues that ranchers in both places started their operations with a fundamentally flawed understanding of the environment because the climate, grasslands and economic potential of the area had been a favorite topic for boosters during the 1870-1880s. What resulted was the importation of thousands of cattle and inappropriate ranching methods. After several years of temporary equilibrium in 1886/1887 a drought and hard winter occurred. By spring it was realized that thousands of cattle had frozen or starved to death where they stood. However, the disaster was not the end of the cattle industry in either Montana or Alberta. Ranchers on both sides of the border tried (often successfully) to adapt to their environment in order to continue in their industry. It is the recognition of a flawed understanding of the environment and then trying to adapt to it that forms the backbone of this 1 work. This study is also a bioregional history of the nineteenth century Montana and Alberta borderlands. As such, it examines how people and governments responded to an environment and climate misrepresented by booster literature and government policy. The work is also connected to broader environmental and political topics. For example, ideas of nation building, borderland economics, the concept of natural disaster, and indigenous displacement are all explored, or touched on in this study. University of Montana historian Dan Flores made the case for drawing boundaries around research projects “in ways that make real sense ecologically and topographically.” Flores’ reasoning was, for environmental historians the bioregion matters.1 The geographical focus of this study includes both Montana and Alberta because the 49th parallel bisects the bioregion within the Great Plains that is the focus of this study: the north-western plains.2 The high plains in Alberta and Montana presented similar opportunities and difficulties for ranchers during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In a sense, the geography, plant species and climate of the north- western plains have all shaped human history, especially ranching. Organizing this study bioregionally along a borderlands, as opposed to nationally, allowed the primary evidence from ranchers to show that the same perception of the environment, methods of ranching, and environmental difficulties existed on both sides of the border. The study area is predominantly semiarid due to the rain shadow effect caused by the Rocky Mountains, but the valleys, rivers and streams that flow through the north-western-plains, fed by mountain glaciers and snowpack, provide additional water. Valleys provided a welcome 1 Dan Flores, “Place: An Argument for Bioregional History,” Environmental History Review 18 (1994): 6. 2 Theodore Binnema, “The Case for Cross-National and Comparative History: The Northwestern Plains as Bioregion,” in The Borderlands of the American and Canadian Wests: Essays on Regional History of the Forty-ninth Parallel, ed. Sterling Evans (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 18. 2 respite for humans and animals in a region prone to high-winds, rain, snow, heat, and rapid weather changes.