Disasters in Northeastern Colorado in the 1800s and 1900s

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1 Disasters in Northeastern Colorado in the 1800s and 1900s By Jessica A. Martin Driving through northeastern Colorado, the view is full of crops such as wheat, corn, and sorghum fields. Pastures are filled with cattle of every color and every town is small. Seeing miles in every directions, the land is beautiful. This unique land is part of the Great Plains. Colorado was presented as a state in the year of 1876, putting the state to be the thirty-eighth state to join the union (Hewes 1973). The history of northeastern Colorado is what defines the people as courageous. They are courageous based off of events they have faced. Some of these events occurred when discovering the land and facing decision of staying on their settlement or not. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s northeastern Colorado farmers and ranchers were brutally faced with disasters such as the grasshopper invasion, winter freezes, and the Dust Bowl. As northeastern Colorado was becoming discovered, the land was being filled with settlements. The settlements were taking place because people were dreaming to have a success. This success would occur through at being farmers and ranchers on the new land of northeastern Colorado. Quickly the people began to fall in love with the land and eventually found themselves achieving but everything changed in The courageous people were faced with the first large disaster of invasive grasshoppers. The grasshopper that became invasive in northeastern Colorado was the rocky mountain grasshoppers, Melanoplus spretus. The Rocky Mountain grasshoppers migrated to the east and south of Colorado in search of a food supply (Taylor 2004). The lack of food supplies for the Rocky Mountain grasshoppers occurred in their original habitat because of an extreme drought, causing a food shortage (Riley 1877). People who lived discussed the darkness of the sun and the thunderstorm sound caused by the large migrating population of the rocky mountain grasshoppers (Taylor 2004).

2 The new pest introduced on northeastern Colorado caused crop failure to almost all the people on the land (Fite 1966). The land was quickly destroyed by the Rocky Mountain grasshoppers, they targeted all types of vegetation. The Rocky Mountain grasshoppers started off by taking out crops, many stated that the pest took out one corn field in twenty-four hours (Taylor 2004). After the crops were gone the grasshoppers became desperate. They moved onto targeting gardens and fruit tree became bare. Eventually the Rocky Mountain grasshoppers went to native grass and quickly all vegetation was gone on northeastern Colorado. As if dealing with large migration population of Rocky Mountain grasshoppers, the population grew dramatically in months. They reproduced at a high rate (Riley 1877). An estimation of billions of eggs were laid by Rocky Mountain grasshoppers (Taylor 2004). With northeastern Colorado facing such a disaster, farmers and ranchers became helpless. The courageous people only had crops to live on and could not afford anything else in this desperate time. Congress attempted to help as they distributed food to 107,535 different families in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado (Fite 1966). But in reality, it wasn't enough. With not enough food for the families to survive, many had to sell or give away their claims. A few people stayed in northeastern Colorado, trying everything to remove the pest. Eventually, a few years later the invasion of Rocky Mountain grasshoppers disappeared. After the pest left, the land and settlers slowly began to recover, until the next disaster occurs a few years later. The next disaster northeastern Colorado people were faced with was the winter freezes occurring in 1885 through 1887, the worst winters recorded (Mitchell & Hart 1987). Northeastern Colorado was faced with numerous and ferocious storms throughout these years. It was not recorded to be one large storm but many little storms occurring over and over again. These storms brought arctic snow, subzero winds, six inches of snow, and then melting in a few

3 days. This caused the land to become slushy making it impossible for cattle to forage as seen in Figure 2. This caused ranchers to feel helpless as many of their cattle starved or froze to death (Fite 1966). It was estimated that 20 to 40 percent of the cattle died due to the winter freezes (Rackley 1971). With an estimation of 150,000 head morality in northeastern Colorado alone (Wheeler 1991). In such a helpless situation, today s agricultural community a farmer would sell their herd to gain an income. But, unfortunately, during this hard time period cattle were at an all-time low. The cattle market was crashing one head was going for less than two cents (Mitchell & Hart 1987). This presented more of a loss then again, making farmers try to survive the winters instead of selling their herd out. A personal example of this hard time was expressed through Frank Dobie who owned the Longhorns Ranch. Frank Dobie spoke about losing tens to thousands of cattle during the winter freezes. The cattle were desperate to survive. Frank Dobie would find his cattle migrating five hundred miles out of their home range. The farmers assumed they were migrating in search of other herds and food supplies. With intruders from other herds coming on the farmers land, it was nearly impossible to drive them away. The cattle were going into their natural instinct for survival. The cattle were bunched together for warmth and wiped out all food supplies found in their area of travel. With every farm facing these same kind of challenges, many of them abandoned their homes (Fite 1966). The ranchers were at a loss, their incomes declined dramatically. Abandoning their homes was one way out of the disaster. Some ranchers sold their land to large corporations (Mitchell & Heart 1987). Another option ranchers took was taking out a loan from banks with high interest rates which eventually presented a loss in their famers immediately, when payments

4 could not be made. A select few who were able to stay on the land found that grass feeding during the winters was not enough. After the harsh winter freezes, ranchers found it necessary to supply feed to their herds during winters in northeastern Colorado. The last disaster that will be discussed was the Dust Bowl occurring in the 1930s. The Dust Bowl was caused by severe droughts, wind erosion, and overgrazing on northeastern Colorado (Hansen and Libecap 2004). The Dust Bowl lasted ten years on the Great Plains causing a negative impact on the land. Through this disaster it was estimated that 480 tons of topsoil was lost per acre. This large loss caused degradation in soil productivity causing it to be impossible to plant crops. This was because of the lack of nutrients and clay and silt matter disappeared. The land became full of heavy and sterile soil, consisting mainly of sand Wind erosion occurred on 24,960 to 169,000 acres of northeastern Colorado. From the wind blowing heavy sand deposits, a lot of property was destroyed. The destruction occurred on crops, farmland, livestock, building, and household items. The cost of these damages ranged from $50,000 to $288,228 per storm. Not only was land and personal items being destroyed, a major problem with the Dust Bowl was affecting the health of people getting caught in the storms. There was many health problems being associated Dust Bowl storms because on inhalation of the dust particles. The air quality was decreasing every time a storm occurred. The greater outbreaks of these health problems were occurring in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. There was large outbreaks of pneumonia, asthma, influenza, and eye infection in these areas because of the Dust Bowl. Over 500 deaths were caused from pneumonia in northeastern Colorado. With loss of personal items, health concerns, and little to no income depression hit northeastern Colorado. Population had a huge decline, nearly know one

5 stayed on the land, many abandoned their homes to go to California and many just traveled until desired land was found, several of the people died during this time. Each disaster caused many of the farmers and ranchers to abandon their settlement because they could no longer stand fighting the disasters faced on the northeastern Colorado. But there was a few who stayed and continued to hope for the best on the land. Three major disaster in the 1800s and 1900s but the land found a way to survive. Today the land is striving with crops, cattle, and towns. Each year there are still disasters to be faced such as flooding, droughts, tornados, hailstorms, and etc. But each year the courageous people on the land find a way to get through it. The land of northeastern Colorado will continue to beautiful but full of unexpected events. The people on the land will continue to learn from these event and the population will continue to increase decade to decade. Work Cited Caddy Cattle trails. Wyoming Trails and Trails. Received on April 14, 2017 from

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7 southern plains. The southwestern Historical Quarterly 94: