| Show U Us S officials say we should add to our list of vanishing americans the name of the famed texas longhorn by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union ADD DD t to 0 o t tho ho list of vanish ing A americans m eri cans the 1 famed T texas axas longhorn at least what a report of the biological survey indicates for it says that this animal which once loomed loome d large in the history of the west is on the verge of extinction once there were nearly of these rangy beasts now out of that vast number there are only pure strain longhorns left they are aie fewer than the buffalo which they succeeded on the great plains and once ri rivaled in numbers unlike the buffalo however the longhorn was not decimated to the point of near extinction by ruthless slaughter he is being bred out of existence in his veins ve ins now flows the blood of the shorthorn and the hereford which r reduced e the length of his horns put meat on his lanky sides and cooled his wild spirits its all due to economics or more specifically to the economic law aw of supply and demand back in in the days which followed the civil war when texans began gathering up the oversupply of cattle running wild over her broad prairies and trailing them north to the kansas cow towns where eastern astern buyers met them america became more of a beef eating nation than it had ever been before the texas longhorn was the chief source of supply and he continued to be thus for more than two decades then american meat eaters began demanding a better quality meat so the stock men in the west used the hardy half wild longhorn as the foundation for crossing with superior beef breeds and that revolutionized the cattle industry and the whole economy of the west the longhorn horn was a picturesque feature of the western landscape but he was also an economically wasteful feature so he was doomed to go by the middle it was apparent that the typical old time longhorn except for a few specimens in wild west shows or rodeo exhibition companies and a few running wild in various parts of the lone star state was rapidly approaching the point of extinction then a few texans remembering that this animal had been one of the chief foundation stones upon which the prosperity of their commonwealth had been built declared that it would be something of a tragedy to let him be wip wiped ed out of existence and decided to do cometh something ing a bout about it among the leaders was J frank doble dobie professor of english at the university of texas and a noted author of western books A move to save the longhorn at a meeting of the old trail drivers association in san antonio he proposed that a I 1 longhorn preserve be established in in the ranch region of south te texas aas and a resolution was adopted in dorsing the plan next the texas folklore society passed a resolution recommending that the leg legislature ls appropriate sufficient funds and provide adequate means to preserve in its purity for future generations the texas longhorn breed the most historic breed of cattle the world has ever known in the meantime the united states Depart department departie me nt of agriculture had become interested in the plan to preserve the longhorn for several years it had tried to secure an appropriation from congress for that purpose but to no avail finally in 1927 through the efforts of senator J B hendrick of wyoming a small sum was granted for the purchase of a few cows and some bulls and it was decided to place them on a preserve in tl j wichita national forest in oklahoma to will C barnes a veteran cowman connected with the forest service in the department of agriculture and another forestry official was given the task of finding the necessary animals the story of their quest is told by mr barnes as follows at fort worth san antonio and other points the gener general al feeling was that their quest would be unsuccessful A few old cows might be found they were told away down in the prickly pear country of the lower rio grande or in the dense mesquite thickets of the plains but bulls well that was something else again everybody doubted the possibility ity of finding them the forest officers cers first plunged into the prickly pear country bea between laredo and brownsville Browns ville on the rio grande and corpus christl christi lion on the gulf every nook and corner of this region was hunted out using every imaginable kind of transportation 77 a 1 1 1 4 7 7 na 7 A 01 1 7 0 A TYPICAL TEXAS LONGHORN photo courtesy of the united states department of agriculture in two weeks they had spotted ten cows and one bull in that corner of texas as meeting their requirements quire ments picking one here one there they hired a cattleman who knew the country to gather them at a central point of shipping and having exhausted this end of texas they moved up into the great coastal plains region between houston and beaumont here was an entirely different di country one of the great range cattle sections of the state the region was combed thoroughly and ten excellent longhorn long hoin cows and two good bulls were gathered inasmuch as the steers are the ones that developed the extremely long horns three glorious animals with good sized horns were brought to be kept as an exhibit of what a longhorn should be they are all young and their horns will probably grow at least 18 inches more in a few years branded U S 11 the two shipments were concentrated cent rated at fort worth and dipped three times at seven day intervals to free them of the deadly texas fever tick and tested for tuberculosis then the whole bunch were put through a branding chute and branded au U S 1 on the left hip the longhorns were shipped from fort worth to the wichita national forest it was like old times to sit in in the caboose of a long freight train with a car of cattle ahead and crawl over the top of the train in the dark to make sure the cows were all w Z N OLD ALAMO this famous longhorn longhom steer was crippled in a stampede during the filming of emerson houghs north ol of 36 and had to be destroyed there cache and the wichita f forest t were eventually reached and the cattle placed in the pasture provided for them swarms of people came out from surrounding cities to look thern them over and the old time cowmen of the region all agreed that the bunch which had been collected were really fine specimens of the old longhorns perfect types with which to build up a modest herd of or head and thus preserve the breed for future generations of americans to study and admire by 1929 the original herd of 24 longhorns in the wichita national forest had increased to 40 and since then there has been a small increase each year but the recent statement made by biological survey officials that there are now only pure strain longhorns including no doubt the herd in oklahoma and scattered numbers in other parts of the west indicates that this animal is nearing the end of the trail and it is not inconceivable that an epidemic or sickness or some other unforeseen circumstance might easily wipe the breed out of existence origin of the longhorn it has been a long trail in more than one sense that the longhorn has traveled his history traces back to the days of cortez the spanish conquistadores brought the first cattle to north america from the hills of andalusia in southern spain two centuries before any cattle were sent to texas the spaniards were successfully raising good ones in mexico the first herds crossed the rio grande into texi tex i as when the missions were built around each mission the padres kept good sized herds of beef and cattle and oxen for transporting heavy loads As the years passed numbers of these cattle escaped and became wild running as free on oil the endless prairies as the bison and the antelope inbreeding caused deterioration and settlers sett lera arriving from the states east of the mississippi late in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth centuries found herds of scrawny wild cattle everywhere with horns out of all proportion to the animals size they were fleet tough creatures as well adapted to the arid region as the antelope and deer or the buffalo herds that were growing less numerous in the years before the railroad came to texas without a rod of fence anywhere between t the it e rio io grande and kansas the longhorn longhom roamed at will over the vast range there became so many in texas then that often they were killed for their hides alone occasionally casio caslo nally herds were driven to new orleans which is miles from san antonio and to mobile and vicksburg they rarely sold for more than 5 a head and the demand was not very brisk then came the civil war texas and send herds northward and the union blockade of the mississippi river was so effective that only one or two droves got almost under the guns of warships below vicksburg their numbers were greatly diminished the remnant finally reaching the confederate army when the war ended the cattle industry in texas was nearly ruined it was during this hour of depression that a ranchman conceived the idea of driving cattle to the north if the buyers come to texas for cattle he would take his cattle where lie he could sell seh them or at least where the prospects were good he selected abilene kan end of rail on the atchison topeka and santa fe so in 1887 1867 the first herd of longhorns went up trail they arrived at their destination were sold at a good profit and the cattleman went back to texas for another the news of his success spread me like wildfire and the next year other herds were driven northward with varying degrees ot of success but texas cattlemen we were reused used to hard luck and difficulties cul ties within two or three years year trail driving became an established business and in one year three fourths of a million head arrived in kansas the longhorn longhom was in the heyday of his glory and the cattle industry thrived in texas disaster on the range it continued to flourish with the discovery by the cattlemen that by driving their steers to the northern ranges and fattening them there they could increase their profits by 1880 the land was badly overstocked over stocked arid undernourished then came the drouth of 1685 when cattle perished by the thousands around tanks and wate this was followed a few years later by severe winters which wiped out whole herds other factors which spelled the doom of the longhorn were the coming of the barbed wire which marked the end of the open range and the settling of the west by homesteaders long before the last great herd went up the trail in 1895 progressive gres sive cattlemen had been introducing blooded stock and crossing them with the longhorns shorthorns Shor thorns were tried first but the shorthorn so good at rustling for his grass in the hereford the cattlemen found the animal that crossed with the longhorn was ideally adapted to the texas ranges so the lanky old longhorn was through as a beef type he became a hybrid and began losing his individuality in the red coated whiteface white face As a pure strain he exists now only as a curiosity on a few ranches in texas at live stock shows and in the reservation set aside tor for him in oklahoma he is a vanishing american |
