Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Tough Times in the Old West: The Great Die-Up


When we think of the Old West, we think of cowboys, cattle drives, open range, and wild times. And, from 1865 to 1886, this would be an accurate description. Then came the Great Die-Up, which many call the end of the Old West and the beginning of a different way of life. So what happened?

The demand for beef had grown steadily and remained strong through the 1870s and early 1880s. Ranchers bred more cattle, and they bred for more weight and meat rather than hardiness. That meant the herds were larger than ever before. And hungrier.

Farmers moved in by the droves and strung barbed wire around their homesteads, leaving less and less land for grazing. Sheep herders brought their flocks, and sheep rip the grass out by its roots, leaving no food for cattle. And then the drought hit during the summer of 1886.  Hardly a blade of grass was left by mid-August, and many ponds shrank to alkalai water. 
By the fall of 1886, range land in the north (the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming) was greatly diminished in size by encroachments, the grass had been over-grazed for a couple years, and the drought killed what grass there was left.  Herds suffered even before the cold weather rolled in.

The winters of the previous decade had been uncommonly mild, but the ranchers didn't know that--only the Native Americans and the mountain men had any experience with the frontier. The cattle had wintered well without extra feed, and subsequently the ranchers quit stockpiling feed, which was quite an expensive endeavor.


So when the snows hit, and it snowed nearly every day in November of 1886, the cattle had to use their hooves to dig through the snow to uncover what meager grasses they could find. The already thin animals grew weak from hunger. The cattle that managed to live through the brutal months of November and December were greeted by a warm Chinook in January that melted the top layer of snow. Cattlemen who'd been standing by helplessly, with no feed in reserve, while their cows died by the dozens, thought they'd make it through the rest of the winter with their herds in fairly decent shape, or at least alive.

Then the temperatures dropped to -50 degrees Fahrenheit and lower, causing a layer of ice to freeze solid over the snow beneath.
"It was all so slow, plunging after them through the deep snow that way.....The horses' feet were cut and bleeding from the heavy crust, and the cattle had the hair and hide wore off their legs to the knees and hocks. It was surely hell to see big four-year-old steers just able to stagger along."
~~Teddy Blue Abbott
After the cattle had pawed down to the bare earth, seldom did they find anything to eat. Livestock invaded the outskirts of towns, eating whatever shrubs and bushes they could find. More snow came, more animals died, and despair spread over the land.

When warmer weather finally melted the snow and thawed the earth, rotting carcasses were scattered all over the landscape. Dead animals fouled the air, the creeks, and the streams. Over 50% of all the cattle alive in October, 1886, were dead by April, 1887--probably about a million animals. Many ranchers went bankrupt, and the rest struggled to hang on.

So ended the days of open range and a whole way of life. Ranchers fenced off vast acreages to grow hay and grain for their remaining herds. Itinerant cowboys had to find other work, or settle for being a ranch hand. More farmers moved in, bringing their wives, children, merchants, churches, and schools. Railroads built more tracks and provided service to more outlying areas.

Thus, the modern West was born. And so it is today.

Additional reading:
Woolgathering and Widdershins
PBS: Hell Without Heat
The Fence Post
History.com
Nativeamerican.co.uk (see some Charles Russell paintings)






15 comments:

  1. Was this the same winter as The Long Winter in the Little House books?

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    1. No, Laura's Long Winter was in 1880/81. De Smet,SD is in the eastern part of SD but being from MT I got to visit it once. Also visited the homestead in Independence, KS, when my daughters were young. Love those books!

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    2. Melissa, I'm glad you answered this because I was still looking for the info. Thanks!

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  2. I always learn something new and exiting with each of your posts.... Keep up the great work.

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    1. Thanks for visiting, and please don't hesitate to contribute. You know a lot about Idaho history. :)

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  3. How tragic. As usual, the animals suffered for people's lack of forethought and willful ignorance about nature.

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    1. I know. People get greedy and the poor animals suffered in the worst way. It's so sad.

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  4. Jacquie, that is so sad, and I had never heard this story before. Most of my research has been Texas based. You are a treasure trove of western lore. Thanks so much for sharing.

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    1. Thanks, Caroline. It goes both ways because I don't know much about Texas history, so I learn from your blog. :)

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  5. I believe this was the brutal winter that Laura Ingalls wrote about in The Long Winter. I loved reading that series every few years, but that book proved so haunting - I would skip it. I still remember the passages of how they'd twist hay until their hands bled to keep warm, all huddled in the kitchen by the stove, and how they'd eat a potato -- and how thin they'd all become by spring. And how truly thankful they were to survive.

    I'd read how horrible that winter was, but not about the numbers of animals dying. Wow.

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    1. It wasn't the same winter but probably equally as brutal to the animals, although the range hadn't been overgrazed yet.

      But as for the Little House series, I did the same thing. I loved all the books, but The Long Winter was hard for me to get through, and I usually skimmed or skipped it when I re-read the series (which I did several times--great books).

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  6. Jacquie, I have a print by Charles Russell called the Last of 5000. It shows a starving cow surrounded by wolves. The snow is deep and the cow is skin and bones. I think it was inspired by that winter. Thanks for this very interesting post.

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    1. Stephanie, I've seen that print and it chills you to your bones in more than one way. Very poignant. And yes, the wolves probably got very fat that winter.

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  7. You know, I was just lecturing about this in my American Environmental History class Friday, and tomorrow we're going to watch the episode of "Centennial" which dealt with it. I wrote a short story called "The Big Die Up" that appeared a decade or so ago in the WWA anthology "Westward," and will appear in a short story collection to be released soon by Western Trail Blazer. Most folks are surprised to learn that the "Old West" of cattle drives and free range last only about 20 years. It just proves what we're learning in my class- in any story about American History, the environment is one of the main characters.

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    1. Troy, I'll be looking forward to reading your short story. Yes, the weather and the geology were everything. I don't think people were prepared for mountains--they thought the Appalachians were mountains. The West is a rugged country where the deserts are drier, the mountains are higher, and the streams are swift and cold. It's beautiful and can lull a person into a comfort zone that is deadly, as so many discovered. The Great Die-Up is a prime example of men whose ignorance of the environment caused monumental suffering for the animals and financial devastation for the human population.

      Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your students know what a treasure they have for a teacher. :)

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