High Falutin’ Beef
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Growing Your Ranch . . . Creatively

Because of the Blizzards of ’86 & ’87 and other reasons, these large ranches began to fade from the Nebraska landscape. Bartlett Richards was an exception. Watch this video to see how he was different from earlier ranchers.


"Bartlett Richards (in center) was an unique character with the spirit of a cavalier, the keen business sense of an American and the manners of a Chesterfield."
Source: Nebraska State Historical Society
Although Richards acted as if he lived in Nebraska all by himself, he definitely did not. In the 1870s, more and more people came here to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862. They took 160 acre tracts of land and turned them into farms, chopping up the large pieces of government land that cattlemen like Richards had been using to range their cattle.



Jorns Family Farm, Dry Valley, Custer County, Nebraska, 1876
Source: Nebraska State Historical Society

Life was quite grueling for farmers in Nebraska, a land with a relatively small yearly rainfall. Many did not make it, and ranchers took advantage of this fact. Watch the video, Homesteaders, to find out more about what happened.


Rancher in the late 1800s
Source: Nebraska State Historical Society


Even though some farmers failed, others kept arriving. As the homesteaders chopped up the vast tracts of public domain land for farms, ranchers faced a dilemma. To profitably raise cattle, you needed more land than the Homestead Act allowed, and cattlemen employed some creative, often devious, tactics to acquire land.

"Donuting"
Ranchers bought small pockets of land surrounding public domain land, thus barring access to others and providing exclusive use for themselves.
Source: NET Television

Some simply acquired title to tracts of land that would encircle public domain land. They could use trespass laws to keep homesteaders from reaching that land, allowing the cattleman to use the land as if he owned it. Others, like Richards, simply fenced off public land in defiance of the law.
Find out more about this conflict in the video, Homesteaders v. Cattlemen.


Sadie Austin in Cherry County, Nebraska
Source: Nebraska State Historical Society
You may have noticed that we’ve been using the term, cattlemen. That’s because in this time period, the majority of ranchers were men. However, not all. Sadie Austin was a renowned rancher in Cherry County, Nebraska at the end of the 19th century. She rode astride a horse, instead of in the more lady-like side saddle mode, was a crack shot with a gun, and yet, was also a refined musician.