We killed all the buffalo to make room for cattle grazing on the American plains. In our very American desire to consume lots of beef, at a cheap price, we have ruined much of what once looked like an endless bounty of free feed for steer. 

In the 1870s, demand for beef was high, start-up investments for ranching were low, and feed looked free. Cattle ranchers pushed unsustainable numbers of cattle onto fragile open range land. In 1870, 5 acres of range land could support a steer; by 1880, it took 10 times as much land to feed one steer.

The manufacture of barbed wire in 1874 cut off the wide open spaces. Ranchers wanted to keep other ranchers and farmers off their land; farmers wanted to keep ranchers' cattle out of their fields; and railroads wanted to keep foraging steer off their tracks. Barbed wired proved much more economical than wood or stone for fencing off vast areas.

The Great Die-Off of 1886-87

By the mid-1880s, devastating droughts stressed grasslands that were already in miserable condition from overgrazing. The paucity of forage weakened herds. Unusually cold winters (including The Great Die-Off of 1886-87) wiped out much of the stock on the open range.

Meanwhile, a nationwide economic downturn weakened demand. Bankers saw trouble coming and called their loans to ranchers.  Ranchers rushed to market what was left of their devastated herds. Beef prices dropped like a lead balloon. The open-range bubble burst.

The idea of the Open Range as a source of cattle feed free for the taking (by the most ambitious and ornery cattlemen) still burbles up in certain libertarian strongholds. Witness the Bundy uprisings in Nevada in 2014 as well as the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.

The Dollop: 305-The Devil's Wire, Dec. 4, 2017

Correction: Buffalo Bill Cody, not Wild Bill Cody