Draining the Swamp
<p>By1870 there were 15 million beef cattle in the United States. Between 1886 and 1888- years now known by Historians as the “Beef Bonanza”- four million longhorns were driven north to meet the railroad. Heritage British breeds from the Northeast began to be shipped west to improve the rangy Longhorn breed, as the Longhorn did not make for the best eating. Breeding British Herefords with the scrawny wild Longhorns would add 300 pounds of edible flesh to the produce more profitable offspring. With this newly booming western economy came an influx of colonists. The populations of Kansas and Nebraska doubled several times in the 19th century, and Dodge City became the cattle capital of the nation, with over 500,000 cattle passing through its railyards annually. During the Beef Bonanza and the intervening years cattlemen spread across the country to build their empires, and Cattle Towns followed in their wake. So too, did environmental destruction.</p>
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