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' in this pattern, acquiring grazing rights during the 1930s that remain part of the property today (Shoemaker 1958: 51-6). The stockmen of Delta and Gunnison Counties shared many other things with their counterparts ' throughout the West. Clad in boots with pointed toes, chaps, awide-brimmed hat and bandanna, the local cowboys came to stock raising from many walks of life. The sons of midwestern farmers hoped to break from the "dull" life in Iowa, drifters from across the country and those ' needing a new start all found jobs on the cattle ranches of Colorado's Western Slope. Also, some of the cow hands came from the Teller Institute Indian School in Grand Junction. The ranches also looked similar to those throughout the West at the time with an emphasis on ' utilitazian buildings and the use of logs and other native building materials wherever possible. Dimensioned lumber, usually reserved for construction of the main house and other key buildings only came into use after the ranch became established. Lumber and other relatively expensive building materials then were used and the older log buildings either abandoned or modified in both function and form (O'Rourke 1980: 121-4). ' The early Delta and Gunnison County stock growers drove their herds overland to reach the ranges until the railroads arrived. Even though the azea did not sit astride a major cattle trail from Texas, occasional herds from the Lone Star state arrived in the azea after long drives. ' After the railroads arrived the necessity to move cattle from ranch to market and between summer and winter ranges meant that the tradition of the cattle drive remained alive in western Colorado into the twentieth century. One change that did take place that marked the closing yeazs of the nineteenth century and the beginnings of the twentieth century ranching was the introduction of blooded livestock to meet ' consumer demands for certain characteristics in their beef. The stockmen replied by upgrading their herds and, through their associations, enforcing range divisions to protect their new animals ' (Goff and McCaffree 1967: 101-10). The turn of the century period also witnessed other changes in west-central cattle growing. ' Generally, ranches were consolidated into larger holdings, some as a result of the Panic of 1893. For those that survived, such as the Cooks, the period was one of regrouping to face the new century. The ranchers survived, but did not prosper at the same rate as earlier. The years from ' 1910 to 1920 wimessed a renewed prosperity for the cattle industry in western Colorado. The rapidly growing American urban population could not feed itself and demand for beef increased and the economic dislocation in European agriculture combined with increased demands at home ' expanded the markets for meat of all vazieties. Stockmen replied by increasing the sizes of their herds and over-expanding that would prove detrimental after the wartime emergency had passed. By the end of the waz it can be azgued that the cattleman's frontier had passed (Steinel 1926: ' 165). The decade of the I920s wimessed something of a return to the static period before Worid Waz ' I. Market pressures and an over-supply kept beef prices stable to slightly lower through the decade. However, by the end of the 1920s, as the United States slipped into the Great r 10