MIDLAND - The “Big Drift” of 1884-1885 is an event still being written about now — 130 years later.
The
cattle migration spawned by a major snowstorm on the Texas Plains that
winter, pushed cattle on the open range over 600 miles, from the
Arkansas River country of Colorado to the Pecos River, the Devils River
and the Frio River of Texas, and resulted in the death of literally
hundreds of thousands of cattle.
Novelist and historian Patrick
Dearen of Midland reawakened interest in the cattle migration when his
latest book, titled “The Big Drift,” was released in September by TCU
Press.
While Dearen’s novel is a
fictional account of the astounding event, the “big drift” actually did
occur and is verified by some scattered written accounts and a number of
tales passed down through word of mouth stories by ranchers and early
day settlers.
Dearen, a native of Sterling City
who grew up in the Middle Concho country where the action in the novel
is set, said as many as 200,000 cattle drifted to the Devils River. It’s
not known how many died along the Devils, but the surviving beeves were
so weakened that loses amounted to 30 percent when cowhands drove them
back toward their home ranges. At least 150,000 were returned to ranches
from the Pecos River region, although his research indicated that
another150,000 were dead at that location. “It
created all kinds of problems for Pecos River ranchers and Devils River
ranchers,” Dearen said. He said his research revealed that at least 30
percent of the cattle driven south by the storm died en route.
Although many thousands of cattle
died in the “big drift,” Dearen said he did not find any accounts of
cowboy deaths during the storm. He did note there was an account of
cowboys chasing cattle up to 30 miles during the storm.
In Dearen’s
novel, several cowboys battle howling winds and biting cold as they
search for Slash Five cattle drifted by the notorious winter storm.
Dearen’s knowledge of the Middle Concho region and of general cattle ranching practices makes the book an enjoyable read.
Dearen drew heavily on interviews of early day ranchers and others conductedby the late Midland historian
J. Evetts Haley and his own interviews of 76 early day cowmen. One was
Mrs. Eugene Cartledge who Haley interviewed on Feb. 2, 1946.
Mrs. Cartledge said she recalled
that her brother came in from the storm that had passed through Coke
County and he stopped in for a cup of coffee. He told her of the many
cattle scattered by the storm. Another Haley interview about the storm
was conducted with Will C. Jones who said cattle fleeing the wrath of
the blizzard passed by his ranch near San Angelo in a nonstop stream for
an entire day and night with no break.
Yetanother rancher interviewed, W.J.D. “Bill” Carr, said he had been sleeping outside and duringthe
storm awoke covered with snow “to a whole world covered with cattle.”
In the open range years before individual ranches were fenced, a change
which blocked the free movement of cattle, it was not uncommon for
livestock to flee snowstorms and other types of inclement weather. In fact, numerous cattle drifts are documented in early day newspaper and magazine accounts.
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