WSP01441

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 12/1/1971
• Author: Missouri Basin Inter
• Title: Missouri River Basin Comprehensive Framework Study-Volume VII-Plan of Development and Management-Appendix
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

a desire by a large number of the settlers to insure the
establishment of certain deep convictions and opinions
they had developed back home. Many of the settlers
chose this area of the frontier because of their desire to
increase the voting power of either the North or the
South in regard to the slavery question and the other
issues which divided the Nation at the time. Because of
their preoccupation with the transplanting of institu-
tions developed in the east, few were prepared to adapt
to the environmen t of the plains. Conseq uen tly, the
drama of conflict which preceeded the Civil War in these
terri tories was confined to the more humid area east of
the 97th Meridian.
The decade of the 1850's produced a rapid migration
to the Pacific Coast. By 1860, a western settlement
frontier had been established. It was composed of people
who had jumped the basin in the initial rush to find gold
in California or land in Oregon and who began to
backtrack into areas which had been ignored earlier. In
the region between this western set tIe men t fron tier and
the settlement line along the 97th Meridian lay approxi-
mately one-third of the territory of the United States,
but in 1860, this area probably contained less than one
percent of the population.
With the passage of various settlement acts in the
1800's, land was made available to settlers for nominal
fees. Most changes from the earlier to the later acts were
in the interest of increasing the individual land holdings.
Some of the changes advocated were obviously the result
of selfish interest, bu t many were based on a realistic
appraisal of the agricultural situation in the Western
United States.
Following the gold rush to California, numerous
prospecting parties entered the Rocky Mountains. Gold
was fuund in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado in 1859
and an estimated 100,000 people reached the area the
first year. Although many of the people in this first
influx later moved on to other discoveries, those who
remained laid the foundation for the establishment of
the Territory of Colorado in 1861. Denver was founded
during this gold rush and, even though the gold deposits
in its vicinity were significant, it became more important
as a major transportation and service center for other
mining areas within the Colorado Rockies.
The rush that laid the foundation of Colorado was
but one of a series of booms which formed the economic
base for a number of scattered settlements. Gold
discoveries in 1863 gave birth to Alder Gulch and to
Virginia City in Montana. Ten thousand people came to
Virginia City in 1864 and the same year saw the
founding of Helena. The mining population was large
enough to warrant the organization of the Territory of
Montana in 1864 and the Wyoming Territory in 1868.
In the 1860's, it was found that cattle not only could
withstand the severe winters of the plains portion of the
basin, but would thrive on the pasturage of wild grasses.

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Consequently, the first whites to attempt permanent
settlement of the plains were the cattlemen. Though of
great influence in parts of the basin today, the period of
their domination was brief, lasting from the time of the
Civil War to about 1900, when they were largely driven
aside by the advancing frontier of farmers.
The rapidly growing population of the East and the
railroads advaJ'cing to the edge of the plains offered
both a market and a means of transportation, opportu-
nities that quickly established the cattle industry in the
basin. The cattIe boom towns of the period included
Abilene and Dodge City, Kans.; Ogallala and Sidney,
Nebr.; Pine Bluffs and Rock River, Wyo.; and Miles City,
Mont.
It is interesting to note that even though the gateway
cities along the Missouri and some of the mining towns
grew to regional importance, by and large the same did
not occur to the cattle centers. Most of these towns still
persist and many perform virtually the same functions as
they did in the 1880's, but none attracted the institu-
tions and industry necessary for regional domination.
Perhaps the reason is to be found in their transportation
roles. As railheads, they served a vital economic
function, but when the rails were pushed farther west,
they lost much of their status and became just service
centers along the tracks.
Even though the cattlemen's frontier was short, it left
some definite influences on the history of the basin. It
helped dispel the concept that the plains were a desert
and aided in the opening to settlement of the vast area
between the 97th Meridian and the Rockies. The
dependence of the cattlemen upon free land added to
the pressure put upon the Federal Government to give
free land to the farmer. With the growth of cattle raising
on the plaim, the r~cking industry moved westward to
center in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha.
This helped cemen t the position of the cities along the
eastern edge of the basin as the center through which all
the goods into and out of the plains passed. The conflict
between the cattlemen on the one hand and the packers
and the railroads on the other for the profits of the
industry contributed to the economic and political
controversies of the first decades of the 20th cen tury
and to the rising unrest of the agriculturalists.
Probably most important was that the cattlemen were
able to devise an economic and social system which was
adapted to the physical environment of the plains. Their
use of the available resources, while probably not very
efficient, was much less harmful than what followed
during the farmer's frontier. The cattlemen adapted their
stock raising to the physical limitations found on the
plains; they maintained the mobility to respond to
climatic fluctuations and markets; and their institutions
were fairly flexible and tailored to the plains environ-
ment. Today, after some 80 years of settlement history,
much the land within the basin is still best suited to the