One of the books I found was "The Call of the Range, NEBRASKA: History of Its Cattle Industry and the Trials and Triumphs of Its Pioneers" by Nellie Snyder Yost, Written for the Nebraska Stock Growers Association.
This book is a wonderful history of Nebraska from before the Europeans arrived through the Indian wars, cattle drives, the building of the railroads, until the settlers fenced in the open range in the late 1800s/early 1900s.
Naturally, since I am looking for interesting material to post on the blog, I paid the $1.00 they were asking for it and brought it home along with the 1939, 1943, 1944 Capper's Weeklys I couldn't resist.
Beginning on page 107 of Nellie Yost's book, I found the following story about our corner of Nebraska:
"Down in the extreme southwest corner of the state, where the Arikaree flows in from Colorado, Jake Haigler set up a ranch in 1872. Other sources claim that Haigler, a former miner and cowboy, came into that corner of Nebraska in 1876 as a foreman for the Benkelman ranch, an outfit employing about twenty cowboys, thirty during roundups.
There were three Benkelmans, all Georges, in the ranch business in the adjacent corners of Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. To keep them straight, their neighbors called them "Big George," "Denver George," and "Little George."
In whatever capacity he came to Nebraska, Haigler did take the first homestead in the region, and proved up on it in 1880. That he ran quite a lot of cattle is evident, for in 1878 Hitchcock county officials questioned the number he turned in for assessment -- and added 550 head at an assed value of $10 each, to his previously assessed valuation. Soon after obtaining a patent to his land, he sold it to Tom Ashton of the American Cattle Company, an outfit headquartered on the North Fork of the Republican, just inside the Nebraska line. Today the town of Haigler, near the site of his homestead in Dundy, the county carved out of Hitchcock in 1884, is all that remains to mark his memory."
I have been skimming through this book and am finding myself stopping to read the interesting stories of cattlemen, cattle drives, how the region was found to be wonderful grazing land for large herds of cattle and how there used to be millions of buffalo grazing these hills.
I'll share more as I have time to read it.
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