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The Open Range: How Unfenced Grass Built, and Then Lost, the Cattle Kingdom

For about a generation, cattle grazed unfenced public land across the Plains, until wire, settlers and weather closed it.

What was the open range?

The open range was public-domain land where cattle grazed without fences. An EBSCO research starter on the open range describes it in Texas, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, and notes that land in the public domain is free for anyone to use. A rancher needed cattle, horses and a brand, and little else.

The system also ran on federal rules. The federal government banned fencing on public lands and on Native American reservations, and it awarded beef contracts to cattle companies that then distributed the purchased beef to reservation residents.

How the open range cattle industry began

The industry began near the end of the Civil War, around 1865. Bison herds had shown that Plains grasses could carry large numbers of animals. Texas had a surplus of cattle that sold cheaply, while the Union Army had depleted northern herds, so prices in the North were sometimes about ten times the Southern price.

M.H. Brown led an early long drive in 1868, moving more than 800 cattle from Texas to Nebraska, and his herd grew to over 1,700 in 1869 and about 2,500 on a third trip. By summer 1870 more than 30,000 cattle were driven from Texas to Nebraska in a single year. From about 1866 to 1890 more than five million cattle were driven north to the Great Plains.

Roundups, brands and sharing the grass

Before fencing, cattle roamed freely, and ranchers relied on semiannual roundups to sort and gather herds. The Oklahoma Historical Society entry on barbed wire describes that system as the way cattle were identified when no fence marked ownership.

English investment drew American businesspeople into the industry, and large cattle companies formed. Cowboys' spending boosted small-town inns, taverns and entertainment businesses along the way.

Why did the open range end?

The EBSCO summary lists several causes. Overgrazing meant large herds stopped grass from regrowing, and bison competed with cattle for forage. Barbed wire, invented in 1874 by the summary's account, made it hard to drive herds through and reduced grazing areas. The Homestead Act of 1862 let adults aged 21 or older, or heads of families, claim 160 acres, with five years of residence and a home required, and that sharply reduced the public-domain grazing land.

By 1885, thirty-five cattle barons controlled most of the market and most of the cattle, and they used refrigerated rail cars to ship beef. Then the winter of 1886 to 1887 arrived. Early, heavy snow and blizzards killed grass and, in the summary's words, caused 60 to 95 percent of major ranches' stock to starve, which it says officially ended the industry. Other accounts of that winter give different figures.

Fences, wire and the Texas Panhandle

The Oklahoma Historical Society entry says first practical barbed wire appeared in 1868 from Michael Kelly of New York, and Joseph Glidden patented a safer design in 1874. Texas Panhandle cattlemen built a 175-mile drift fence in 1880 to 1881 to stop cattle drifting south. Blizzards in the mid-1880s drove thousands of cattle into the wire, where they died, and those losses weakened opposition to fencing.

In the Cherokee Outlet, ranchers fenced large areas from 1882, usually with the Cherokee Nation's approval, and the federal government required all cattle to leave the Outlet by October 1890.

What Made It Work

The open range worked because grass was free and prices were wide apart. It also depended on a loose set of habits among ranchers that held for only a generation.

Its limits were built in. Free grass invited overgrazing, and fences were the answer ranchers reached when it ran out.

  • Ranchers used public-domain land that was free for anyone to graze.
  • They moved cattle from low-price Texas to higher-price northern markets, up to ten times the Southern price at times.
  • They sorted herds at semiannual roundups instead of fencing pastures.
  • They drew outside money, including English investment, to form large cattle companies.
  • They shipped beef by refrigerated rail car once the big operators controlled most of the market.
  • They paid for overgrazing and a thin winter reserve when the 1886 to 1887 winter struck.

What came after: stock-farming

Fencing ended open-range ranching and the roundup circuit, and it enabled selective breeding of Hereford and Angus cattle. Historian Walter Prescott Webb described this shift as ranching becoming stock-farming. Cattle remained important in Oklahoma through the twentieth century.

The cowboy and Wild West imagery of the era persisted in novels, television, movies and fiction. For more on the working side of the open range, see the ranching section of farm.FM, read a farm.FM story about the open range, and for the long walks that crossed it, the entry on cattle drives in the United States.

Timeline

  1. 1862Homestead Act allows claims of 160 acres in the West
  2. 1865Open range cattle industry begins near the end of the Civil War
  3. 1868M.H. Brown drives more than 800 cattle from Texas to Nebraska
  4. 1874Joseph Glidden patents a safer barbed wire
  5. 1880-1881Texas Panhandle cattlemen build a 175-mile drift fence
  6. 1885Thirty-five cattle barons reportedly control most of the market
  7. 1886-1887Blizzards starve stock and end the open range industry
  8. 1890Cattle required to leave the Cherokee Outlet by October

Frequently asked questions

What was the open range?

The open range was unfenced public-domain land where cattle grazed freely, mostly on the Plains between about 1866 and 1890. Ranchers marked cattle with brands and gathered them at semiannual roundups.

What ended the open range?

A mix of overgrazing, barbed wire, the Homestead Act and the severe winter of 1886 to 1887 ended it. Settlement shrank the public land, and fencing replaced roundups with fenced pastures.

How many cattle were driven to the open range?

From about 1866 to 1890 more than five million cattle were driven north to the Great Plains, according to one research summary. Other accounts count the drives differently, so treat it as a rough figure.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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