Cattle In The Cold Desert, Expanded Edition

12. Horses, Tame & Wild in the Sagebrush

Making Hay in the Great Basin 205 Sparksassayinginregardtothewinterof1889–90,“Ilostabout30,000 cattleorabout65percentofmyentireherd.TheHerefordsatthebeginning constituted about 40 percent of the whole herd. I found that of the numbersurvivingthesecondwinter,atleast90percentwereHerefords, showingconclusivelytheirsuperiorconstitution.”34 Thisstatementmust have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in bull sales on the western range. Possibly the most accurate direct quote from Sparks on the losses of 1889–90 was published by Harper’s Weekly: “We lost that winter, which was a severe one, 35,000 head of cattle and when we roundedupourcattlethefollowingspring,90percentofthosewefound had white faces characteristic of Herefords.”35 Thenumbersmaybequestioned,butthevitalpointofthisquoteisthe mention of the white faces characteristic of Herefords. The animals that survivedwereprobablyhybridoVspringofHerefordbullsandLonghorn cows. Their survival was a product of hybrid vigor. The Hereford bulls contributed to this vigor, of course, but so did the genetically diverse Longhorn cows. TheSparksmansioncontainedtwocasesoftrophiesandmedalswon by his Hereford show herd. Sparks Wtted a show herd that toured state fairs and shows all over the far West. Articles about Sparks often mention Earl of Shadeland 30th, the Alamo herd’s top bull, as the champion oftheColumbiaExpositionof 1893.36 Thebullstoodthirdinthesweepstakesclassforbullsofanyage .Infact,atthetimeoftheexposition,Earl of Shadeland belonged to C. H. Elmendorf. Sparks bought the bull later and gradually started referring to him as “his” champion of the ColumbiaExposition .Regardlessofwhoownedhim,EarlofShadeland30thwas atremendousbullwhoforseveralseasonswasconsideredunbeatableon the midwestern show circuit.37 John Sparks received a lot of publicity from Earl of Shadeland 30th, but it was purchased publicity, and not a product of his own breeding program.Apparently,thebestWnishinnationalcompetitionforbreeding stock obtained by progeny of his own program was a fourth-place Herefords in the Sagebrush 205 206 The Land in Transition Wnish by a junior yearling bull in the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904.38 During the late nineteenth century there was considerable prestige attached to importing Herefords directly from Herefordshire, despite thegrowthandprogressmadebyAmericanbreeders.From1880to1900 some Wve thousand head were exported to the United States. This must have left English pastures considerably depleted of stock while enriching English Hereford breeders. Sparks imported eight Herefords, two bulls, and six heifers during this period. One of the bulls was purchased from the Monkton herd of James Smith at Pembridge, Hereford, one of theWrstestablishedherdsofHerefordsinEngland.Thesecondbullwas purchased from the Courthouse herd of John Price, also at Pembridge, Hereford.Thisherdwasfoundedin1862andhadabrilliantshowrecord in England. The heifers were purchased from A. P. Turner’s Leen herd and R. Green’s Whittern herd as well as the herds of Smith and Price.39 These eight animals were suYcient to establish Sparks’s image as an importer.OneexuberantsupportersaidthatSparks’sherd“wascapable of competing with the royal herd of Queen Victoria.”40 Sparks was quoted after the turn of the century as saying that he began importing Herefords in 1893.41 Apparently, however, his Wrst ventureinEnglishcattleoccurredin1897whenhevisitedKansasCitytosee a shipment of Herefords imported from England by Kirkland Armour. He hired George Morgan, a native of Herefordshire who had helped deliver the Herefords to Armour, to manage his Alamo herd. In 1900 SparkssentMorganbacktoHerefordshirewithabankdraftfortenthousand dollars to purchase a quality herd bull. WhenPresidentTheodoreRooseveltvisitedtheAlamoStockFarmin 1904, Sparks told him, “Now that you’ve met my prize bulls, Mr. President , meet my John Bull,” and introduced George Morgan. “If you want toaskanyquestionsaboutthebulls,”hecontinued,“askGeorge.”42 This may well have been a tacit admission that review of long pedigrees and recitingEnglishbloodlineswasnotamongthemanytalentsofthiscowboycapitalistfromTexas .Sparksmayhavelackedtechnicaldetailsinthe Making Hay in the Great Basin 207 purebred livestock business, but it did not keep him from being active inthepoliticsofthebusiness.Hewasanactivesupporterandearlypresident of the American Hereford Association.43 John Sparks reached out for technical expertise by hiring William Stevenson,whosefatherhadbeenthemanagerforGudgellandSimpson. The Stevensons were Scottish cattlemen of the old school. Stevenson became the manager of the Mayberry Ranch in Sparks’s Truckee Meadows holdings.44 In 1900 John Sparks capped his national and international purchases of Herefords by paying the unheard-of price of ten thousanddollarsforDale66481,oneofthetopsiresinthenationalshow circuit.45 Alwaysquicktograspthepotentialpublicityvalueofhisactions,John SparksprotestedthevaluestheWashoeCountytaxassessorplacedonhis purebred Herefords in 1901. The assessor valued his bulls at seventy dollarsandhiscowsatWfty.SparksraisedtheassessedvaluetoWvehundred dollars for the bulls and one hundred dollars for the cows. Sparks appeared before the Board of Equalization and refused to pay until the valuations were raised.46 He succeeded in getting the assessed value of his bulls, which were his marketable product, increased to more than seventimestheoriginalamount,whilethecows,whichmadeupthebulk of his herd on a continuing basis, only doubled in assessed value. In 1889 Sparks became involved in a national scheme to promote Herefords. Kirkland Armour donated a Hereford heifer to the promotersoftheAmericanRoyalLivestockshowinKansasCitytoberaZedoV to raise funds for a building program. This was not just any heifer, but Armour Rose 75084, a perfect yearling...