16 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN March 2025 ported as many as 30 million bison, 26 million feral cattle and horses, and countless other ruminants such as elk, deer and antelope. What these explorers didn’t realize was the nutrient density of the native “hard grasses” and the tremendous depth of topsoil in much of the Great Plains that had built up over thousands of years of being in grasslands. In much of Nebraska, they were also standing over top one of the country’s greatest agricultural water resources in the Ogallala Aquifer. They also vastly underestimated the potential productivity of the Sandhills for raising livestock. Although the Sandhills did not likely treat novice managers well, in experienced hands, it represents one of the best cow-calf regions in the country. The Louisiana Purchase personified the first of a dizzying pace of land acquisition, which over the next 50 years (18031853) would see the United States acquire the area that would comprise the lower 48 states. This helped fulfill what many felt was the country’s God given duty to spread Anglo morals, capitalism and Christianity throughout North America. In the 1840s, influential newspaper columnist John O’Sullivan, of the New York Morning News, officially coined this duty as “Manifest Destiny,” and was its biggest proponent. Of course, this was to the detriment of the Native Americans who had lived on the continent for 15,000 years prior to the Europeans “discovering” America. James Monroe – the country’s fifth president (1817-1825) – negotiated a permanent border between the United States and the United Kingdom, set at the 49th parallel, from Minnesota to the Rocky Mountains. This ceded land to the United Kingdom that was part of the Louisiana Purchase that jutted into the Alberta prairie, while Great Britain ceded to the United States the fertile Red River Valley that was south of the 49th parallel. They also agreed for the time being that they would co-administer the Oregon Territory. The next land acquisition came in 1819 when Spain ceded Florida to the United States, which included the northern boundary of the Gulf of Mexico running from Florida to New Orleans. In exchange, the United States assumed Spain’s liabilities from Seminole raids that had occurred over the U.S. border. With Florida, the United States inherited the Florida Crackers, Spanish-origin cattle that came to Florida via the Caribbean Islands and had been running feral on the peninsula since the 16th century. Another strain of Spanish-origin cattle named the Pineywoods was running feral along the northern section of the Gulf Coast. Although largely uninhabited when acquired, by the 20th century and the Late 19th century. Native cow and calf. Credit: R.L. Hough. Territorial acquisitions (1776-1886). Hart-Bolton American history maps (ca. 1917). Credit: Library of Congress. From the R.L. Hough collection. WESTERN EXPANSION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
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