Knell of Big Rancher Sounded-

Opening of Standing Rock and Cheyenne Reserve Dooms the Picturesque Cowboy.

The practical assurance from Washington that the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservation will be opened for settlement means the passing forever of the large ranch and the genuine cowboy. The "Montgomery Ward cowboy", as he is facetiously called by the genuine article, will doubtless be with us for a long time, for the young arrivals roam the East love to don some portion of the cowboy garb, regardless of occupation.
The Matador Cattle company, The Diamond A, the Turkey Track, the ZT and various other large companies still range thousands upon thousands of cattle on the surplus Indian lands which are to be thrown open to settlement. Their leases for the most part have some years to run, and they have received no notice from the government to vacate, but representatives from commercial bodies interested in the opening, whose representatives have visited Washington, are assured that this will not prevent the opening next fall. So the "old timer" resigns himself to the inevitable and views with regret the passing forever of the thousands of cattle on the range, the roundup wagon and the ranch.
Some of the big outfits will still operate in Canada, where they have ranches, as well as here, and in Texas, but the most of them will go out of business.
The last remnant of the only herd of wild buffalo in the United States will be killed or sold this winter. This is the last of a herd which has been running at large on the Cheyenne reservation, and is owned by the Duprees. The animals have never been in a fence, but have run on the range which their predecessors occupied. The bulk of this herd was sold some years ago to Scotty Philip, and are under fence near Fort Pierre, but a few of the original herd are still at large and run with the Duprees cattle.
Taken from McIntosh Globe February 11, 1909