Does history sometimes run in a circular pattern? In western SD in 1870's and '80's the ranches were mostly open range absentee foreign owners, with managers and cowboys running them. Bad blizzards and little understanding of range management broke many of them. The fencing of reservations forced changes in methods and fences added to the demise of the grasses due to concentrating the cattle and long term grazing led to over grazing and drought added to the problems. My grandfather-in-law thought they had ruined the range forever, and was pleasantly surprised when the grasses came back better than ever after the large herds were gone and the rains returned. He had learned the lesson of managing the grass and not over-grazing it.
After those earliest large corporate ranches failed, government implemented Homesteading and brought in hordes of people, telling them "rain will follow the plow" and the land was cut up into small parcels of land far too small to support a family in these arid lands. Many sold out, and the larger ranches and farms began to learn better ways to manage the land. IMO, we still are learning that this land cannot support large communities. Where 25 to 50 or more acres are required to support a cow and her calf for a year, there just won't be many large communities in close proximity. It seems to me some sort of mining or manufacturing economy is needed to have cities......unless the city is a government center!!!
mrj
