From the open skies of Wyoming, here’s this month’s short story about ranch life, an insight I learned from my family, and a piece of trivia, along with a bit of book news.
Story
Imagine having an asset that can simply walk away from you, sometimes miles away, and end up intermingled with other people’s identical assets. Cattle do that. A livestock brand is needed to symbolize individual or corporate ownership of a particular animal, no matter how far away it roams.
A heated iron is used to burn the chosen brand design into the hide of horses and cattle, and paint is used on sheep. The iron hurts for a moment, but ranchers rub the affected area to cool it and treat the animals to prevent infection while the brand heals.
Brands were first registered with the Wyoming Territory in the second half of the nineteenth century and were recorded much more regularly after Wyoming became a state in 1890. Wyoming’s brand book includes the registered brand designs, the owners and their city, and the location on the animal’s body where the brand is affixed. A good rancher quickly learns how to read numerous brand motifs on the hide of cows grazing the open range.
The only way to give an unbranded calf (slick) its proper brand is to mother it up with its already branded mother. In the early days, anyone putting a wrong or altered brand on a slick could face rustling charges, a bullet, or a noose. In a failed effort to resolve problems of unbranded cattle on the open range, Wyoming’s Maverick Bill of 1884 gave large stockmen uneven control over roundups and subsequent brandings at the expense of smaller operators, leading to the range war of 1892.
Joel J. Hurt recorded the I Lazy D brand with the Wyoming Territory in May 1876, and it transferred to Isaac C. Miller in 1888 after their livestock partnership dissolved. It was designed as a capital “I” followed by a capital “D” lying with its hump side down, hence the “lazy” designation (see photo). Careful stockmen designed unique brands to differentiate them from those of adjacent owners in each county. In Joel’s case, because the Interior Department already had an ID brand, he got creative and laid one letter of his brand on its side to avoid any confusion.
Originally a brand could be applied to any part of the animal, but over time, the left side rib area was chosen for cattle. Ike's brand, like others, was accompanied by an appropriate earmark (a small slice or snip at the tip of an ear) to complete the identification.
The longevity of a brand associated with a particular ranch symbolizes more than the ownership of livestock—it identifies the ranch itself.
Insight
From Dad: Always care for your horse and livestock first. When you’re riding across 250 square miles, you have to know where you are all the time and your horse is your only companion. Mutual trust is imperative among companions. Your branded horse is your best friend.
Trivia: Did You Know?
Our ranch acquired the I Lazy D brand just a month beforeGeorge Armstrong Custer died along with his command at the Little Bighorn (June 25, 1876).
Book News
A Sometimes Paradise recently won the Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award for Western Nonfiction!
Until next month,
Mark Miller
“Tabasco exploded into a gallop, gliding over the dunes, spraying high-arching sand plumes behind us on the trail.” From A Sometimes Paradise.
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