Distinctly Montana Magazine

68 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 • • • After 1909, the violent raids more or less stopped, partially be- cause there was now a precedent for the conviction of sheep raiders in cattle country, and partially because there was no more open range to kill over. In the end, some 50,000 sheep were clubbed, shot, blown up, driven off of cliffs, driven into rivers, or poisoned. In addition, some 40 or 50 human souls were killed over sheep, most of them sheepherders. When interviewed in 2008, a now elderly rancher in Oregon told a story of meeting an old sheepman while working a sheep operation as a kid. The man seemed haunted by something and never spoke. After a while, the rancher asked a fellow worker who the man was, and was told this story: "Three cowboys came through, and they caught him and they beat him half to death. They got him on his hands and knees and made him walk around his herd of sheep and baa like a sheep. When he got to the farthest side of the herd, they'd had their fun and turned him loose. Well, he crawled back through his herd and got back to his camp. He revived himself as best he could, and he got his saddle horse and his rifle, and he went after them. He caught up with them and he killed one, wounded one, and captured the third one. Well, right then the herder was a young man, only in his late teens, maybe twenty or so, and he didn't think too much about it... Then as time went on it started to bore on his mind of killing that man, and he turned into a vegetable. And that was what he was when I knew him." Many of the cowboys got away with it and were never brought to justice for the murders of the sheep, and the destruction of the livelihoods of the sheepherders. Did they remember, until they died in their beds of old age in the 1930s or 1940s, their sheep raids with pride? Or did they, too, become haunted by what they had seen and done out there in the high country? "So you see," the Oregon rancher told his interviewer, "even in the rough days of the cattle wars you can't kill a man and brush it off like a sore throat." IN THE END, SOME 50,000 SHEEP WERE CLUBBED, SHOT, BLOWN UP, DRIVEN OFF OF CLIFFS, DRIVEN INTO RIVERS, OR POISONED. IN ADDITION, SOME 40 OR 50 HUMAN SOULS WERE KILLED OVER SHEEP, MOST OF THEM SHEEPHERDERS. MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOTE FOR THEM IN OUR WIN $ 500 IN CASH! FOR YOUR CHANCE TO BEST OF MONTANA CONTEST! MONTANA BUSINESSES HELP YOUR FAVORITE www.distinctlymontana.com/bom2024 2024 of B E ST M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F S U B S C R I B E T O D AY S U B S C R I B E T O D AY A N D G E T A L L T H AT ' S B E S T A N D G E T A L L T H AT ' S B E S T A B O U T M O N TA N A I N Y O U R M A I L B O X ! A B O U T M O N TA N A I N Y O U R M A I L B O X ! SUBSCRIBE TO DISTINCTLY MONTANA MAGAZINE AND GET IT DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME! distinctlymontana.com/subscribe SEND A CHECK FOR THE AMOUNT MATCHING THE SUBSCRIPTION PERIOD YOU'D LIKE: 1 YEAR - $39.95 2 YEARS - $69.95 3 YEARS - $99.95 MAIL CHECKS TO: DISTINCTLY MONTANA PO BOX 84 BOZEMAN MT 59771 TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE: 406-600-7660

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