2018-01-03_PERMIT FILE - C1981010 (33)

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Early Settlement Historic Euro -American interest in the potential agricultural lands of the reservation lands in western Colorado (namely the Uncompahgre, Gunnison, Colorado, Dolores, San Miguel, White, and La Plata River valleys) had been growing for some time prior to the Utes' banishment, and by the spring of 1881 frontier towns closest to the Ute lands were "crowded with people, anxious to enter the Reservation and take possession of the most desirable locations" (Haskell 1886:2). Only days after the last of the Utes had been expelled, settlers began rushing onto the reservation lands. Settlement activity spread quickly --during the autumn months of 1881 land claims were staked, townsites were chosen, and railroad routes were surveyed (Borland 1952, Haskell 1886, Rait 1932). However, because the former reservation lands were not officially declared public lands until August 1882, the first year of settlement activity was marked by a degree of uncertainty regarding the legality of land claims. When finally announced, the 1882 declaration did not allow homestead entries on the newly opened lands, but only preemptions, or cash entries, at the rate of $1.25 per acre for agricultural land, $5.00 per acre for mineral land (Borland 1952:75). By 1895, the major portion of the land in the area had been claimed, mostly under Cash Entry patents. The settlers raised their own food and availed themselves of the plentiful game in the area. Gardens, hay fields, and orchards were planted, and irrigation ditches were dug to divert the creek's water to cultivated fields. Large herds of cattle and sheep were accumulating, grazing the valley floors and the vast open ranges of the surrounding mountains, driven to the uplands via trails leading up the various gulches and canyons. In 1871 the first cattle were driven into Colorado, into Brown's Park. This area quickly became notorious because of constant rustling and its popularity as a hideout for outlaws (Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch perhaps being the most famous). By the 1890s the ranching interests of northwest Colorado had become divided. At the time of the coming of the railroad, cattle production was the major industry there; and at one time, Steamboat Springs was the largest cattle shipping point in the United States (Athearn 1977:83). Hence, the large cattle outfits in the region of the Little Snake River and Brown's Park fought to preserve the Open Range policy in the face of incursions into their territory by homesteaders and, worse yet, sheepmen. Terrible, violent range wars erupted with the first attempts to bring sheep onto the open range. Sheepherders and their animals were killed or driven back to Wyoming. In 1911, the George Valley Sheep Massacre brought public sympathy to the sheepmen when hundreds of sheep were driven over a cliff to their deaths (ibid.). The combination of small ranchers banding together with sheepmen and the creation of the National Forests and the requirements of grazing permits broke the power of the big ranches. The high mountains bordering Egeria Park offer some of the best summer grazing in the county; in 1918, the first ten carloads of sheep were brought into Egeria Park. we