Cattle roaming the open range is a staple of western history. In the eastern Mojave cattle made their appearance in the 1860s, along with miners, soldiers and other immigrants who were creating the first significant American imprint on this area. This was a rugged frontier, and self-sufficiency was the order of the day. Many who came brought their own food in the form of cattle.

Ranching as an industry dates from the 1880s. Numerous mines in the area provided an initial market for beef. More important was the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s. Transportation meant a connection to the rapidly industrializing national economy, and the hungry populations of our growing cities. Cattle could be loaded onto railroad cars and shipped to whatever market was buying meat. Grazers helped create an important segment of the local economy, and a segment that was much more stable than the notoriously boom and bust cycle of mining.

The biggest cattle company in this area was the Rock Springs Land & Cattle Company, whose vast holdings spilled across the east Mojave and into southern Nevada. They primarily grazed on open government lands, and there were no significant restrictions on how the land was used. Cattlemen grazed where they wished, and enforced their range by gun if necessary. Water sources were the key to control of this land, so it was necessary to gain ownership of springs and other water sources. They acquired the land by purchase, or used homesteading or mining laws that allowed them to patent and gain control of land. In effect, ownership of water gave the ranchers use to all the surrounding land. The two other dominate forms of land use - railroads and mines - both benefited from the production of beef, so there was not much opposition to grazing interests. What conflict occurred was largely among the grazers themselves.

The beginning of homesteading in the 1910s brought a new dynamic to land use. Homesteaders had to make a living off the land, including raising crops. They erected fences to keep cattle from trampling their fields, thereby removing some of the best grazing lands in the area from the public domain. As can be expected water, always in short supply, was a subject sure to create controversy. Most of the best water holes had been appropriated by the cattle companies, and bitter fights erupted over water use. In one situation, an old-fashion shootout at a well called Government Holes erupted that left two men dead. And some homesteaders resorted to cattle theft to put a good meal on the table. Eventually dry weather and poor land caused most homesteaders to leave the desert, leaving cattlemen again in control of the situation.

1934 was the year the Taylor Grazing Act was past, designed to bring order to the vast public domain. Most of the United States outside the original 13 colonies had been at one time public lands, but by 1934 most of this land had been disposed of. What remained was primarily arid or desert lands largely used for grazing, but with no real controls this land had become overgrazed and degraded. The Grazing Service, todays Bureau of Land Management, was created to administer this public domain. Cattlemen could now acquire, for a minimal fee, a grazing lease to use public lands. In the process they were given sole use for a given piece of territory, but in return they agreed to limited grazing to certain specified levels based on what the land could carry. Grazing within Mojave National Preserve continues today based on these general principles.

Photos Courtesy of Mojave Desert Archives