March 2025 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN 15 INTRODUCING HISTORIAN BOB HOUGH Beginning this month, Nebraska Cattleman is pleased to introduce a new series of “PAST” articles from acclaimed author, historian, educator, researcher and innovator Robert “Bob” Hough, Ph.D. Many may know or recognize his name, as Hough has spent a lifetime in the cattle industry, from serving as the executive vice president of the North American Limousin Foundation and chief executive officer of the Red Angus Association of America, to being highly involved in the Beef Improvement Federation, U.S. Beef Breeds Council, National Pedigree Livestock Council, National Western Stock Show and serving as a livestock judge and speaker at numerous industry events for decades. Since retiring, Hough has focused on journalism and writing books, including, History of Red Angus, Breeds of Cattle, Simmental’s American Journey, Shorthorn and the American Cattle Industry, and The History of Aberdeen-Angus in the U.S., UK and Worldwide. (The latter book has sold into 38 states and 23 countries in the six months since its release). Hough is also currently a correspondent for Western Livestock Journal and a freelance writer. We are pleased to have Hough contribute to the Nebraska Cattleman. the many tribes they came in contact with – most welcoming but some hostile, considering them trespassers. Pike and Long were less generous of their assessment of the Great Plains, describing it as “unfit for human habitation,” and the Nebraska territory as, “The Great American Desert.” These descriptions were mainly based on the relative lack of timber and surface water. Describing the area as a desert made the region an unattractive place to consider homesteading. This was despite the fact that this “Great American Desert” was a productive prairie that ranged from Texas to northern Canada, and whose grasslands at one point supsince the acquired lands were already occupied by Native Americans, in a real sense, what the United States had done was acquire the exclusive rights to negotiate, purchase or take by conquest these lands from the native peoples. However, the promise of the abundant natural resources gained by the Louisiana Purchase was not immediately realized, with mixed reviews coming from expeditions by Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery in 1804, as well as by Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in 1806 and Major Stephen Long in 1819. In the vast grasslands of the Great Plains, Lewis and Clark reported the huge herds of buffalo (bison) grazing there in addition to Nebraska centennial, 1854-1954. Map of the Nebraska section of the Nebraska Territory, established May 1854. Credit Library of Congress. From the R.L. Hough collection. CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
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