|
This snowy November morning saw the passing of a piece of cattelman history in the Sandhills. For years, Texas Longhorn cattle resided alongside bison and elk on the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge East of Valentine, Nebraska. Two years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed a new comprehensive management plan for the Refuge. Biological considerations in that management plan led to the conclusion that grassland damage from these heavy, horn-endowed cattle exceeded any economic or historical benefit of their continued residence at Fort Niobrara. So today, Federal, State, and local officials along with a posse of volunteer wranglers began an 8 day cattle drive to move the herd to its new home at Fort Robinson, nearly 140 miles West of Valentine. For residents of Cherry county, these big ungulates had become old friends, perhaps symbolic of the ruggedness needed for survival in the Sandhills. Today, the City of Valentine turned out to bid the big herd a farewell as bulls, cows and calves were driven through Valentine, down mainstreet, and onto the Cowboy Trail, headed West to their new home. On the corner of 1st and Main in Valentine, in spite of a crowd of media, local residents, tourists, and officials, the only sounds notable as the herd passed were the low whistles of the wranglers and hooves clomping pavement. The crowd watched as the speckled and solid beasts moved in a cluster, watching the crowd in return, perhaps wondering like the local residents, why this was happening. Time will pass and locals will pull out photos of the cattle and tell of the times when the Texas longhorn had a home in Cherry County. Perhaps they'll return someday, but for now the Longhorn era has passed, melding into the fabric of Plains history like the whistles and clomping that fade into a darkening curtain of snowflakes on a November morning .
|
