Rivalry between Ranchers and Homesteaders

Rivalry between ranchers and homesteaders

• Ranching on the open range required a lot of land- about 2,000 acres.
• The ranchers did not buy all of this land as it would've been too expensive.
• Instead they nade use of public land.
• Federal Law said that everyone was able to pasture livestock on public land.
• This worked well when there was no competition for land.
• Ranchers divided the land up between themselves.
• A homesteader is someone that took government land and farmed it.
• A rancher is someone who rounds up and farms cattle.
• They both use large amounts of land, so there may be conflict over the amounts of land used. Cattle grazed on nearby homesteaders' land so this caused conflict too.
• The Homestead Act allowed people to file claims of up to 160 acres of land. When homesteading spread to ranching country, it threatened ranching. Ranchers used many different tactics to block homesteading on 'their' public land.
• They filed claims themselves for the bits of the…