The cattle industry boomed in the 1870s and 1880s . The needs of new towns , mining communities , railroad construction crews , military and supplying Indian reservations with beef meant there were good markets for cattle . In 1870 , when the railroads were built in Colorado , cattle could also be shipped east .
Ranchers hired young men to help round up and care for the cattle . They called these cow herders “ cowboys .” Ranchers worked together to round up the cattle . Cowboys would ride out and drive the cattle to a central location . Here cowboys on well-trained horses would sort the different ranches ’ cattle . Cowboys on horseback would keep the different herds apart . Then the cowboys would rope and brand their ranch ’ s cattle . Branding helped them identify who owned the cattle .
One of the biggest round ups took place in 1885 . It took 75 chuckwagons feeding 10-20 men per wagon and 6-7 horses per man to gather nearly 200,000 cattle . Cattle were rounded up , calves were branded , and herds separated based on who owned the cattle .
At first , Texas longhorn cattle were not welcomed in Colorado Territory . These Texas cattle carried diseases that killed the more valuable Colorado cattle . A law was passed in 1867 to prevent bringing Texas cattle into Colorado . But there was good profit to be made from Texas cattle and the law was repealed by the Territorial Legislature in 1870 .
Colorado is still an open range state . This means that cattle and livestock can roam freely . If you don ’ t want these animals on your property , then you must fence them out . It is not the responsibility of the owner of the cattle to fence them in .
Math Exercises : During the 1885 round up , if each chuckwagon fed 15 men , how many men participated in rounding up the cattle ?
If each cowboy used six horses , how many horses were used ?
About how many cattle did each cowboy round up ?