Cattle baron is a historic term for a local businessman and landowner who possessed great power or influence through the operation of a large

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most oft ...

with many

beef cattle Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef. In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf oper ...

. Cattle barons in the late 19th century United States were also sometimes referred to as cowmen, stockmen, or just ranchers. In Australia, similar individuals owned large

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm (station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a ''grazier''. The largest cattle statio ...

s. A similar phenomenon occurred in part of Canada in the early twentieth century.

Notable examples

''In the American

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

:'' * Otto Franc *

Charles Goodnight Charles Goodnight (March 5, 1836 – December 12, 1929), also known as Charlie Goodnight, was a rancher in the American West. In 1955, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Early y ...

Essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal an ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

J. Frank Dobie said that Goodnight "approached greatness more nearly than any other cowman of history." * John Chisum *Tom McCall * Conrad Kohrs; see Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site *

Oliver Loving Oliver Loving (December 4, 1812 – September 25, 1867) was an American rancher and cattle driver. Together with Charles Goodnight, he developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was mortally wounded by Native Americans while on a cattle drive. ...

* James Dolan *

Susan McSween Susan McSween (née Hummer; December 30, 1845 – January 3, 1931) was a prominent cattlewoman of the 19th century, once called the "Cattle Queen of New Mexico", and the widow of Alexander McSween, a leading factor in the Lincoln County War, who ...

Frank Wolcott Frank Wolcott (1840–1910) was an officer in the Union Army, a law man and a rancher. Biography Early life Wolcott was born December 13, 1840 in Canandaigua, New York. He served in the Union Army in the Civil War, and was promoted to the ...

* Margaret Borland ''In Australia:'' *

Peter Menegazzo Peter Menegazzo (1944? – 2 December 2005) was an Australian grain grower and cattle baron. Born to an immigrant family of fruit and vegetable growers, Menegazzo was said to be an intensely private person who rarely gave media interviews. Menega ...

Sidney Kidman Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime. Early life Sidne ...

''In Canada:'' *

The Big Four (Calgary) The Big Four were the wealthy Alberta cattlemen Patrick Burns, George Lane, A. E. Cross and Archibald J. McLean. Together they founded the Calgary Stampede, as well as other cultural and entrepreneurial activities in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in ...

(four businessmen: two ranchers, a meat packer, and a brewer who founded the

Calgary Stampede The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition, and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and feat ...

, the world's richest rodeo) ** George Lane, rancher ** A. E. Cross, rancher Bar U Ranch ** Patrick Burns ** Archibald J. McLean ''In England:'' * Jonathan Wall (Cambridge) (Baron of Cambridge who held a significant amount of land on which he kept several thousand cattle)

In popular culture

Cattle barons appear in numerous

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

novels and films, often as

villain A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

s. Such films include ''

Broken Lance ''Broken Lance'' is a 1954 American Western film directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Sol C. Siegel. The film stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, and Katy Jurado. Shot in Technicolor and CinemaScope, ...

'' (1954), '' Lawman'' (1971) and '' Heaven's Gate'' (1980). In the ''Fallout'' video game series, Brahmin barons are exactly the same as cattle barons but herd mutated livestock instead of normal animals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cattle Baron Animal husbandry occupations American frontier American cattlemen American ranchers Western (genre) staples and terminology

Notable examples

In popular culture

See also

References