To effectively understand the cattle barons’ influence in Wyoming, one should observe those first cattlemen who came into their region, establishing many of the laws that would later affect many ranchers and cattlemen across the state. Many of the first cattlemen who established ranches in the Territory of Wyoming were from England, Scotland and Canada. Many of these early cattlemen bought vast amounts of acreage as they worked to establish themselves within the American Cattle Industry. These same men soon became leaders within the community, not just as cattle barons, but politically, socially and economically. In the early 1830’s British aristocrats found their way to the United States on excursions to the “Wild West”. This cavalcade …show more content…
Jerome Smiley with the National Livestock Association of the United States in his book Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry of the United States, Volume I, that the Wyoming cattle industry just like other business took an economic hit as others in the industry did. However, Smiley pointed out there was an upside for Wyoming in the fact cattlemen from Texas and the South migrated west to Montana and Wyoming from not only the effects of the Panic but older ranches they had worked for many years and were looking for something new. With the newly established association, it is ironic that Wyoming cattlemen seemed unaffected in the cattle market were others were. Throughout most of the cattle, market prices were at $2.00 per hundredweight, while Wyoming flourished at between $4.00 and $5.00 per hundred weight, which kept many Wyoming cattlemen from ever feeling the effects of the Panic. Maurice Frink suggests in When Grass Was King, that the stockman of Wyoming formed the Laramie County Stock Growers Association because of the Panic. He went on to say that, this organization “would grow into the most militant and politically one of the most powerful of all the cattlemen’s organizations”. Throughout the years of 1875 -1878, little was written about the stock association in Wyoming newspapers. There were several articles covering the brands of the stock, and quite a few indicating that meeting were being held, but the information was limited in regards to what the organization was doing during these few years. It wasn’t until 1879 that an article was written which gave a great synopsis of the groups work and the activities they had done during the 1870’s after the panic. It was not until April of 1879 that Laramie County Stock Growers Association placed a two column article in the Cheyenne Weekly Leader detailing their annual meeting. In the past there was just the