Pets.

Friday Farming. The vehicles that changed the West.

I've written on this previously, but up until the end of World War Two, travel in Wyoming, in winter, and much of the West, was very limited.

Oh, sure, there were snowplows that went out on the narrow two lane highways, but off the highways?  Well, you better be pretty sure you could get back.

Now, my father only ever owned one 4x4 vehicle, and it was one he bought from me.  But we didn't go up in the high country or into the foothills once winter started.  That was out.  You stuck to areas that were relatively near a county road or that were blown off, and probably down around 5,500 feet or less. Beyond that?  Forget it.

And this was true for ranchers too.  Some men stayed up in the high country, but they stayed there. . . all winter long.  People often fed by horse drawn wagon (and in a few places, still do).

The Dodge Power Wagon changed that.  And it was a creature of the Second World War.

Lex Anteinternet: World War Two U.S. Vehicle Livery: National Museum...: 

The father of the Dodge Power Wagon, the 1/2 ton truck, a fair number of examples of which can be found in the Rocky Mountain West in spite of the small number produced, was in addition to being too light, too top heavy.

With the Power Wagon, you could now get there in winter.  Maybe not everywhere, but darned near everywhere, even up in the high country.

And that meant you didn't need to keep hired men up in the high country in line shacks all winter.  For that matter, with a trailer, you could easily feed in a fraction of the time it had taken with a wagon.  You probably didn't need hired men for that either, if you had them.

And while it would take awhile, really when NAPCO started converting Fords and Chevys into heavy duty 4x4s, it would also mean that sportsmen could get back there in the winter too.

Revolutionary.

Related threads:

A Revolution In Rural Transportation

Lex Anteinternet: A normal winter. How it used to be.

The Rise and Decline of the "SUV".

Lex Anteinternet: So you're living in Wyoming (or the West in genera...So what about World War Two?

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Back in the Saddle

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The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System

The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”...:   “

Blog Mirror: “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System

 

“Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System

 

Anthrax detected in multiple beef herds and a dead moose in Carbon County

Friday Farming: At 84, Lander horseman still makes hay the old-fashioned way

 

At 84, Lander horseman still makes hay the old-fashioned way

Friday Farming: Ecological benefits of strategically applied livestock grazing in sagebrush communities

 

Ecological benefits of strategically applied livestock grazing in sagebrush communities

Painted Bricks: Sheepwagon statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Sheepwagon statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

Sheepwagon statue, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Blog Mirror: Historical Photo: Horses

 

Historical Photo: Horses

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Barley Harvest

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Elemental activities.

Indeed, if I had power for some thirty years I would see to it that people should be allowed to follow their inbred instincts in these matters, and should hunt, drink, sing, dance, sail, and dig, and those that would not should be compelled by force. 

Hillaire Belloc

Friday Farming: Ranch Wife Types

 

Ranch Wife Types

The Mouser

Friday Farming: Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Lettuce Get Down to Business

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Lettuce Get Down to Business: Photo from 1918 of the Mahon Ranch, west of Buena Vista. Pictured are Martha Mahon, her daughter Cassie and Cassie’s husband George Fields...

Overthrowing the system.

How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your TV; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it.

Edward Abbey

Blog Mirror: What Is The Rural Worth?

 

What Is The Rural Worth?

The Agrarian's Lament: Agrarian of the Week: The Victory Garden.

The Agrarian's Lament: Agrarian of the Week: The Victory Garden.: 

Agrarian of the Week: The Victory Garden.

The television show, not the World War Two institution from which it takes its name.

Somewhat quirky and odd, the long-running show commenced in 1979 and was hosted by the late James Underwood Crockett originally.  I recall it from the Roger Swain era, however, which apparently from the mid 1980s to 2002, which surprises me as I recall watching it with my father, and not thereafter.  He died in the early 1990s.  Swain, with a huge red beard and suspenders was ahead of his time in the hipster movement, held a PhD in biology, so he knew his stuff.  It apparently ceased production in 2010.

One interesting thing I'll note is the name, The Victory Garden, which takes its name from the gardens people were urged to plant in World War One and World War Two to counter food shortages.  While both wars were obviously horrific, this aspect of the home front remains fondly remembered, and therefore the name is familiar.

Canadian World War One Victory Garden poster.

The Agrarian's Lament: Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Lettuce Get Down to ...

The Agrarian's Lament: Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Lettuce Get Down to ...: 

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Lettuce Get Down to Business

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: Lettuce Get Down to Business: Photo from 1918 of the Mahon Ranch, west of Buena Vista. Pictured are Martha Mahon, her daughter Cassie and Cassie’s husband George Fields...

Really interesting article on an agricultural evolution in Colorado.  

As I noted in my comments there, and expanding on them a bit here, it's often struck me that the hills around Ft. Laramie, which are grazing land today, are called "Mexican Hills" as New Mexican laborers were brought up to the area after the Mexican War to build the cement buildings at Ft. Laramie, and after they completed the construction, they moved off post and put in vegetable farms. The produce was sold to travelers on the Oregon Trail.

That obviously didn't continue on forever, but I don't know when it ceased.  I've also often wondered what happened to them, and their descendants.  There is farming, of course, in that region of Wyoming, but it's nearly a monoculture of a sort.  All corn in that area.

In the Bessemer Bend area of Natrona County, which is farm land but for hay farms and feed corn only, at one time there was some potato production and barley production, the latter for Coors. 

Around the state, if you look at old photos from a century ago and more, you'll see grocery stores with signs indicating that fresh produce was "bought and sold", meaning that they were getting their produce locally.  That certainly doesn't happen anymore.  If I buy lettuce at the chain grocery store (the only place I can buy it) it's come hundreds of miles to be here.

And, in spite of all the land they hold, you'll not find a ranch yard with a garden.  At least I'm not seeing any.

Something has been lost here.