Webblog

Lecture 6; Ways and Habits of the West touched on the cattle drive, and the eventual shift from cattle towns to farm towns. Prof. Isern talked about the "long drive", how the cattle trails ran North/South versus the traditional railroad and interstate routes that ran East/West. Next he described the traditional story of the cattle range, and then drew some conclusions that maybe the traditional way of looking at things is not the way it really happened. An example of this was how it was looked upon as having Spanish roots, and Prof. Isern seems to see it as more of a fusion between the Spanish and the Celtic methods.

A major part of this lecture is focused on the differences between the open-range of the U.S. and the Canadian ranching practices. Prof. Isern pointed out that although in the long run both the U.S. and Canadian cattle industries were run the same, different methods were used to accomplish their goals. He stated that the Canadians method was more political, economic and social whereas the American method was cultural and technological. At the end of the lecture he went through some reasons that the open-range ended, and some technology that helped modernize the industry, such as feed lot development and meat packing.

What really caught my attention was the effectiveness, and almost sneaky way, that the small plains towns used the cattle trails as a way of booming into existence and then they just pushed them out for more "civilized" industries and peoples. These small towns gained population and popularity with the cattle trails by becoming cattle towns and then as a safety valve would turn to things like the Herd Law to escape this style of existence to a more "suitable" one of being a farm town. The idea of more farmers moving into the areas as it become more settled, and then enacting the Herd Law appears to me to be a brilliant move.