Ranching, Cattle & Cowboys 1862-1876

Test yourself

The Growth in the Cattle Industry

The railroad industry and innovation in the transportation industry drove huge growth in the cattle ranching business.

The railroad

In 1873, speculation in railroad building companies had become so common that there was a financial crisis tied just to gambling on railroads.
By 1870, railroads connected hundreds of towns across the United States.
Beef could be sold to cities like New York and Chicago for 8-10x the cost it took to rear the cows (cattle). The problem previously had been transportation.

The refrigerated car

In 1878, Gustavus Swift invented the refrigerated railroad carriage. By putting ice in the carriage, it kept meat cool for long journeys.
This meant that meat could be transported from cattle ranches to large cities in the North and East of the United States.
There was now 'arbitrage' - an opportunity to make money from unequal prices - by raising lots of pigs and cows somewhere cheap and selling the meat where it was expensive in major cities.

'Cow town' and Joseph McCoy

Abilene is a town in Kansas (which is next to Missouri and close to Chicago).
A railroad was extended to reach Abilene and Joseph McCoy would use this opportunity to become a successful cow entrepreneur.
He moved over 30,000 cows to Abilene, built a complex system to load cattle onto trains and negotiated a path that went through land controlled by the Plains Indians.
Abilene was such a hub that attracted cowboys and cattle because of its loose quarantine laws that allowed cattle and meat to come from lots of different places. It became the hub for trading Texan 'Longhorn' cattle.

Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving

Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving spotted another arbitrage opportunity in the cattle industry.
They realised that the price of cattle in Fort Sumner in New Mexico was $15 per cow, instead of $5 per cow.
- In Kansas, the same cow could fetch up to $64.
The capitalist industry around the railroads and cattle industry had a huge impact on people's ability to eat nutritious meals and live in different cities across the United States.
They extended their trade route from Texas to Fort Summer and then beyond Fort Summer to Denver in Colorado and then Cheyenne in Wyoming.

John Iliff

John Iliff is the final cattle magnate covered in the course.
Like Charles Goodnight, Iliff made the most of Denver's position as a transport hub in Colorado.
He started an enormous cattle ranch in Colorado and sold his beef to the Plains Indian tribe, the Sioux.
Iliff was known as the 'Cattle King of the Plains'.

Ranches, Cowboys & Homesteads

The growth of cattle ranching meant that some cowboys gave up their traditional way of life on trails to settle down.

Cowboys

Cowboys would shepherd and drive cattle to where they needed to be moved to. They would work very long shifts, driving cattle between towns.
Instead of working on open land, cowboys began to work on the ranches. The work was safer on ranches. They could stay in houses and generally stayed in a single place more often than they had when they roamed the country.
The work was all year round.

Cattle ranches

Cattle ranches originated in the region of Andalucia in Spain.
The law in the USA had allowed people to graze their cattle anywhere they wanted.
So cattle ranchers allowed their cows and Texan longhorns to roam all over America, kept in check by the cowboys.
Most ranches banned the use of knives and weapons like guns.

Homesteads

The homesteaders had claimed their sections of public land in exchange for the $18 fee.
However, cattle ranchers let their cattle roam all over the country. So homesteaders would move into their homes and find that random cows would graze all over their land. There wasn't much timber for fencing and there were often disputes between the farmers (raising crops and sheep) and ranchers (raising cattle).

1The Early Settlement of the West, c1835-c1862

1.1The Plains Indians: Beliefs & Way of Life

1.1.1The Plains Indians - Social Structure

1.1.2The Plains Indians - Way of Life

1.1.3End of Topic Test - Social & Tribal Structures

1.1.4Grade 9 - The Plains Indians

1.2Migration & Early Settlement

1.2.1The Oregon Trail & Gold Rush

1.2.2Manifest Destiny

1.2.3Major Migrations - Donner, Mormon & Farmer

1.2.4End of Topic Test - Migration and Early Settlement

1.2.5Grade 9 - The Early Settlement of the West

1.3Conflict & Tension

1.3.1Fort Laramie Treaty & Indian Appropriations Act

1.3.2Lawless Towns

1.3.3End of Topic Test - Conflict & Tension

2Development of the Plains, c.1862–c.1876

2.1The Development of Settlement in the West

2.1.1Causes of the American Civil War

2.1.2The American Civil War

2.1.3Homesteading & Railroads 1862-1876

2.1.4Continuing Law & Order Problems 1862-1876

2.1.5Ranching, Cattle & Cowboys 1862-1876

2.1.6End of Topic Test - Development of the Plains

2.2Changes in the Way of Life of the Plains Indians

2.2.1Impact of Railroads & Settlers 1862-1876

2.2.2Impact of the Peace Policy & Reservations

2.2.3The Indian Wars (1862-1868)

2.2.4End of Topic Test - Changes in the Way of Life

2.2.5Grade 9 - Development of the Plains

3Conflicts & Conquest, c.1876–c.1895

3.1Changes in Farming & Settlement

3.1.1Farming & the Cattle Industry 1876-1895

3.1.2The Exoduster Movement & Oklahoma Land Rush

3.1.3End of Topic Test - Exodusters, Land Rush & Cattle

3.2Conflict & Tension

3.2.1Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp and the Range Wars

3.2.2Little Big Horn, the Ghost Dance & Wounded Knee

3.2.3Destroying the Indian Way of Life

3.2.4End of Topic Test - Conflict and Tension

3.2.5Grade 9 - Conflicts & Tension

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