Life in the country. Ranches and Farms

Life in the country resembled that in the towns, except that settlers found it harder to obtain supplies. Prospectors roamed about with supplies loaded on a burro or two, but they had to return to a mining camp when they ran short. Country life on the frontier usually meant living on a ranch or a farm.

Ranches usually lay in mountain valleys watered by melting snow, or in broad uplands that had some moisture. Most ranches consisted only of a few simple buildings and some corrals (cattle pens) surrounded by high, strong fences made of stakes and poles. The grassland of the open range provided pastures. The Texas house, two log cabins joined by a roofed space, developed into the ranch-style house of today. The rancher used one cabin for cooking and eating, and the other for sleeping. As the ranch grew, the rancher might build a house for the family, a cookshack, and a bunkhouse for the hands (cowboys).

Cattle ranchers let their herds graze on the open range, so they needed few buildings and no fences. But they did need cowboys to turn the cattle out to graze in spring, and move them to rich mountain pastures. Cowboys constantly guarded the herds against mountain lions and bands of rustlers. In the spring and fall, all the ranchers in an area held a roundup to gather in the cattle. Cowboys had already marked the grown cattle by branding them or cropping their ears. People from each ranch sorted out these cattle by their markings. New calves followed their mothers. Then cowboys cropped the calves' ears or branded them with the owner's mark.

Cowboys also drove herds to cattle towns, or cow towns, to be shipped east on the railroads. On the long drive, cattle moved in long lines, with riders ahead, behind, and on both sides. A chuck wagon carried food for the cowboys, and a wrangler took care of extra horses.

When all went well, the cattle moved slowly but steadily. But they sometimes stampeded when they were afraid to swim a river, or were frightened by Indians or rustlers. After a few months, the drive plodded into a cattle town such as Abilene or Dodge City, where cowboys loaded the cattle into freight cars. For a description of cowboys and their work, see Cowboy; Ranching.

Farms, unlike ranches, depended on the soil, not the grass. Farmers plowed the grass under and raised grain, mainly wheat. Grasshoppers, hot winds, and prairie fires often made life hard for settlers on the plains. So did the ranchers, who resented the barbed-wire fences that destroyed the open range. Bloody fights developed in the range wars, or barbed-wire wars, that followed. Farmers fenced in watering places or blocked trails, then ranchers cut the wires. Barbed wire finally won, and farms spread farther and farther out over the rich grasslands of the Great Plains.

Texas longhorn cattle, hardy and fierce, were descended from wild cattle brought to America by the Spanish. Ranch owners branded them or notched their ears to identify them

Life on the plains resembled that of pioneers east of the Missouri River. But there was a basic difference. While the farmer in Ohio might have too many trees, the farmer on the plains usually had no wood at all. The western farmer's land has often been called the sod-house frontier, because so many settlers built houses of dirt and sod. Farmers plowed furrows of sod and cut them crosswise into blocks about 1 foot (30 centimeters) square.

They piled rows of sod blocks on top of each other to make walls, and covered them with a thatch roof. Sometimes they brought wood with them and built a frame to support the roof, or found a little wood nearby. A sod house remained warm in winter and cool in summer, but it had many disadvantages. Dirt sifted down on the food, crumbled from the walls, and rose from the clay floor. Rats and mice lived in the thatch, and snakes and gophers often dug tunnels through the walls or floor. For fuel, the farmer used twigs, grass, corncobs, peat, and buffalo chips, or manure. Later, settlers often improved their soddies by whitewashing the walls and hauling in lumber for doors and ceilings.