Museum Education Kits 

The South Dakota State Historical Society offers education kits to South Dakota classrooms and other groups. Each kit contains hands-on objects, relevant lesson text, ready-to-use worksheets, and a variety of fun and unique activities. For more information or to schedule an Education Kit please contact Ronette Rumpca by e-mail Ronette.Rumpca@state.sd.us or telephone 605-773-6011.

South Dakota State Historical Society Education Kit
Cowboys and Ranch Life

Teacher Resource

A ranch is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as “an extensive farm, especially in the American West, on which large herds of cattle, sheep, or horses are raised.”  On some ranches livestock graze on the range year-round, while on others the animals get hay and grain as supplemental feed.  More land in the United States is used for ranching than for any other type of farming.

Ranches come in all sizes. Some are one-person operations, others have one or two hired hands, and large outfits may have fulltime managers and employ lots of hired help.  Cattle and sheep ranches are the most common.  A few ranches raise horses, and some even raise buffalo.  Today many ranchers have both sheep and cattle on their land.

Cattle Ranching          

After the Civil War, buying cheap cattle in Texas and driving them north to fatten provided a good profit.  Expenses for these ventures remained low as long as the grass was free. Many large-scale ranches on the Great Plains were financed with money from England and Scotland.  The open-range cattle industry lasted roughly from 1850 to 1900. Cattle drives started out from Texas in late March or early April and could be on the trail for up to a hundred days before reaching the good grass of the northern plains. 

The open-range cattle industry declined by the mid-1800s and the large trail drives north stopped.  More farmers moved into the land that had been open range. Herd laws made livestock owners liable for damages if their stock trespassed on the property of others. The cattle boom really busted in the winter of 1886-87, when blizzards lasted from November to March on the Great Plains. The severe weather caused large losses of cattle. For example, the Clark & Plumb EG herd was 18,000 strong when winter started.  Only 1900 animals made it to spring. [1]

That hard winter made it clear that successful cattle ranching depended on winter feeding.  Large outfits were replaced by smaller-scale family operations and fenced pastures replaced the open grazing. The new breed of cattlemen applied science and technology to their business and produced more beef on less land. New forage crops like alfalfa provided reliable winter feed.  Fencing in pasture land meant grazing could be rotated and grasses reseeded. Hereford and other breeds provided higher quality beef. The herds became healthier as vaccines for diseases like tick fever developed. Better refrigeration, improved transportation, and irrigation changed the cattle industry too.  Disease and pest control, and grazing rights regulations from the federal government also brought changes.

4-H Clubs played an important role in promoting ranching improvements.  They helped develop a new ranching generation comfortable with changes in the industry.  Fenced pastures, well-bred cattle and winter feeding became the norm in cow country.  Even so, some jobs continued to be done as they had for many years. Cowboys still rode the range and attended to tasks like rounding up and branding animals.

The first cattle in Dakota Territory didn’t come with the large cattle drives.  The first cow recorded in South Dakota came with Manuel Lisa, who founded Fort Manuel in 1812 along the Missouri River.  Prince Maximillian of Wied wrote about seeing a large cattle herd in Ft. Pierre in 1833. [2] The cattle that did come to Dakota Territory during the cattle drive era met several needs.  Indian treaty provisions required the government to provide beef for the reservations.  Military posts needed beef for food, and mining camps in the Black Hills provided a ready market as well.

Typical cowboy work included driving trail herds, gathering and branding calves in the spring, and rounding up and gathering stock for market. Cowboys also rode line, riding along the boundaries of an outfit’s range, and later along its fences.  Line work included fixing fence, checking waterholes, caring for injured animals, and keeping a lookout for rustlers. Breaking horses and building corrals could also be part of a cowboy’s day.  In a line camp on the outer fringes of an outfit’s range the cowboy had to do personal chores like hauling water, chopping firewood, cooking meals, and washing clothes, bedding and saddle blankets. Of all the ranch hands who worked in the cattle industry, about one-fourth were African-American. Substantial numbers of Hispanics and Native Americans worked as cowboys, too. [3]

During roundups, cowboys were assigned to different tasks.  The wagon boss was the foreman or man in charge.  Circle riders or cowhands did the actual rounding up – working the cattle, roping and branding, day herding and night guarding.  Reps or stray men were cowhands that worked for an outfit other than the one running the roundup wagon. They represented their outfit and in addition to the normal work, they cut out their outfit’s stock and herded them home at the end of the roundup.  The wagon cook made sure the entire outfit was fed three times a day.  A horse wrangler herded the remuda or saddle horse herd and helped with camp chores like gathering water and wood.  The first big roundup in Dakota Territory took place in 1881, and the last was held in 1902.

In addition to the hard work, roundups provided a chance for friendly competitions among the cowboys like horse races and shooting contests.  Some of these competitions evolved into rodeo events like bareback bronc riding and team roping.

Sheep Ranching

Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated because of their flocking instincts and their ability to produce both food and clothing with their meat and wool. Their strong herding instinct and tendency to follow a leader – where one sheep goes, others will follow – make it possible for one person to handle a large number of animals. Sheep adapt readily to a wide range of climatic conditions and can go several days without water.  They will eat shrubbery and weedy forage that cows avoid.

On the Great Plains, the same conditions that led to the cattle boom of the 1880’s brought expanded sheep operations, too.  Foreign and domestic capital became readily available, range sheep were cheap and easy to get, and free range lands opened up for grazing.  Since they were usually smaller, sheep operations had lower startup costs than cattle operations.  The double income from wool and lambs made sheep operations an attractive financial prospect.  Like range cattle operations, large-scale sheep ranching worked only in areas with a lot of space, like newly opened territory, or land not fit for crop farming.

The hard winters of 1881 and 1887 eliminated or greatly reduced the large open-range cattle companies. When the large companies left, more land and water opened up for grazing sheep. Three factors made western South Dakota good sheep territory – the climate, the abundance of open range, and the variety of feed on that range.  Black Hills miners provided a ready market for mutton as well as beef.

Sheep appear on a Ft. Pierre inventory in 1844. [4] The southeast corner of Dakota Territory had a few farm flocks by the mid-1860s.  In the 1870s, sheep moved into the Black Hills.  Seven Black Hills counties – Butte, Carson, Dewey, Meade, Harding, Perkins and Ziebach – held most of the sheep.  Sheep companies farmed out animals on shares to farmers and small ranchers, so many people raised sheep in small numbers.  The bad winter of 1881 caused severe losses among the flocks and the winter of 1886-87 was as hard on sheep as it was on cattle.  Peter McCathern and J. M. Ward fed a herd on aspen tree bark and limbs, and managed to save 900 out of 1800 head. [5]  Belle Fourche became the principal wool market in the Hills after the Chicago and Northwestern Railway was built.

Although there were some clashes between sheepherders and cattlemen, Dakota Territory never had the bloody range wars that occurred in other places.  Some encounters like the one below did take place in the state.

Charles Cooper took a few hundred ewes into the country east of Slim Buttes.  Cooper set up his tent and equipment, and stuck closely to herding.  Cattlemen were soon whispering the old excuses preliminary to running a sheep band out – if one is allowed in, others will come; sheep will eat out grass roots and leave nothing for the cattle; sheep stink will drive cattle from the range and the water holes.  Very little was required to stir up commotion.  Fortunately, a few of the stockmen had respect for all kinds of livestock as animals, and the idea of killing or maiming them did not appeal to their sense of decency and fair play.  Furthermore, they were intelligent enough to know that they held no title to the range they used and Cooper has as much right there as they did.  So the threats and mutterings gradually quieted, and the cattlemen discovered that neither Cooper nor his sheep bothered them – there was room for all.  Soon the fact that a flock brought two sources of income annually, the lamb and the fleece, led a few cattlemen to experiment.  They told their cattle friends that sheep took less feed than cattle and gave quicker returns. [6]

Like the cattle industry, the sheep industry evolved over time. Breeding programs produced new types of range animals, flock and wool handling techniques improved and new marketing methods developed.  The open-range sheep industry was ending by the 1930s.  Having herds of both sheep and cattle on the same ranch became common practice.

Since lambs and wool provided a sheepman’s profits, lambing and shearing were critical times.  Lambing took place in the early spring. While opinions varied as to the best lambing practices, one basic principle held true – a ewe knew her lamb only by smell for several days after its birth.  Ewes and newborn lambs needed to be kept isolated or in small bunches for the first few days after the lamb’s birth. If this wasn’t done, the smell of too many lambs confused the ewe and she stopped hunting for her own lamb.  Motherless lambs became “bums”, and needed hand-feeding to survive.

In the drop bunch method of lambing, the herder held all the pregnant ewes in a band – the “drop bunch”.  As each ewe gave birth, she was separated from the bunch.  Lambs born in one 24-hour period and their mothers were isolated for another day so the ewes learned to pick their lambs out of the crowd. These small bunches were gradually combined into larger and larger flocks.  In cold, wet weather lambing tents – small canvas tents just large enough for the ewe and lamb – protected the animals.  Keeping them together in the tent for several hours insured that the ewe learned her baby’s smell.  Big problems occurred if two or more lamb bunches were combined before the ewes identified their own lambs. Such a mix resulted in many bum lambs.  Using lambing sheds and numbering the ewe and her lamb for easy match-ups are common practices today.

Shearing took place in the early summer.  The sheep needed their wool to protect them until any danger of cold weather was past. After being driven to pens, shearing crews worked with hand or machine shears to remove the wool.  By machine or by hand, a good shearer could do a hundred to a hundred and fifty sheep per day. Hand shearers tied their own fleeces, while machine crews had an extra man to do that job.  The wool was tied with paper twine, and packed in burlap bags taller than a man.  A wool tramper stomped on the wool to pack it tightly into the bag. The work stopped if it rained during shearing because wet wool could not be packed.  After being sheared, the sheep were branded.  Sheep brands are painted on, not burned into the hide.  Since this marked only the top wool layer, branding had to be redone after shearing and usually once between shearings.

After shearing, sheep moved onto their summer range. A sheepherder watched over the flock, protecting it from predators and thieves, and moving it to new grazing areas.  A flock moved about every four to six weeks as they ate off the forage in an area.  One herder with a good dog like a Border collie could handle up to 3000 sheep.  The sheep wagon, a compact house-on-wheels, provided the sheepherder with moveable shelter.

[1] Bob Lee and Dick Williams, Last Grass Frontier: The South Dakota Stock Grower Heritage.  (Sturgis: Black Hills Publishers, Inc., 1964), 154.

[2] Bob Lee and Dick Williams, Last Grass Frontier: The South Dakota Stock Grower Heritage. (Sturgis: Black Hills Publishers, Inc., 1964) 10.

[3] Amanda Kraus, “Home, Home on the Multicolored Range.” Museum News 77 (November-December 1998): 25.

[4] Jami Huntsinger, “Pioneering Black Hills Sheepman: Myron John Smiley,” in South Dakota Leaders, ed. H.T.

 Hoover and L. J. Zimmermann (Vermillion: University of South Dakota Press, 1989), 261.

[5] Edward Wentworh, America’s Sheep Trails. (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1948), 339.

[6] Ibid., 342.

Photograph List

All photographs are from the South Dakota State Archives

Cowboy Fred Pierce,1887.  Grabill photograph.

The photographer, John C. Grabill, set up a studio in Sturgis, Dakota Territory, in 1886.  He worked there until early 1891.

Branding cattle, 1891. Grabill photograph.

Roundup.  Photo by P.H. Kellogg, Ft. Pierre. 

Mississippi Ranch outfit mess camp near Cheyenne crossing on Rt. 63.

Kellogg photograph.

Mississippi Ranch bunkhouse.  Bunkhouse of J.D. Carr on the Mississippi

Ranch along the Cheyenne River.  Leaky roofs, bugs, and “cabin fever” were common problems of early bunk houses.  These fellows don’t appear too happy about their surroundings. 

Jack Hudspeth, posed in a studio photograph.

Cowboys.  Photo taken in McIntosh, SD, 1925.  

E.E. Dunlap’s “Killer” horse.  Ed Dunlap is holding the horse, George Defender has the saddle.

Cowboys in McIntosh, SD. The same group as in photograph 7.

The Shepherd and flock.  On F. E. & M.V. R’y in Dakota. 

Grabill photograph.

Table of Contents

For More Information on Education Kits please contact:
Ronette Rumpca
Curator of Interpretations
605-773-6011
Ronette.Rumpca@state.sd.us