Grazing History of the Northwest

Abstract

The earliest grazing in the Northwest (which probably began about 1700) was by Indian horses. Livestock-a few head of cattle-were first brought to the Northwest at Nootka Bay on Vancouver Island, B.C., by Spaniards in 1789. By 1825, there were 27 head of cattle at Vancouver, Wash., near the mouth of the Columbia River. Marcus Whitman brought cattle to the area east of the Cascade Mountains in 1836. Mass movements of cattle took place from western Oregon to east of the Cascades during the 1860's. Numbers skyrocketed which resulted in sizeable exportations of livestock in the late 1800's to regions east of the Rocky Mountains, largely for building base herds. These drives contributed significantly to development of the livestock industry east of the Rockies, although they have been largely neglected by writers who chose, rather, to popularize the cattle drives from Texas and the Southwest. Raising livestock on rangeland is still, and will continue to be, one of the major basic industries in the Pacific Northwest. There are many millions of acres of private and public rangeland and grazable woodland in the Pacific Northwest on which concurrent grazing by livestock and game should continue to be one of the major uses of the resource.