Echoes Across the Plains - Part 1

by Dorthy L. Mast

The Bird City area was once considered a part of the Great American Desert, where only the Indians could survive.

In 1873, the Legislature created counties out of the western half of the state of Kansas.  About this same time, an enterprising young man from the Denver area started on a journey by horseback across the so-called desert and continued across the western part of Cheyenne County, Kansas.  There were very few trees, but to his astonishment, the plains were alive with prairie grasses.

As he crossed the Republican River, he envisioned the possibility of a great cattle ranch.  A few years later with the interest and support of his family, this became a reality with its headquarters on the northwest side of the Republican River.

In the 1880's, it is not known exactly how two wealthy merchants from St. Joseph, Missouri, became aware of the richness of these prairie grasses.  However, they soon formed the Northwest Cattle Company and sent Benjamin Bird (who at that time, lived with his family in St. Joseph, Missouri) as manager to Cheyenne County, Kansas, who established ranching headquarters on the northeast side of the Republican River.

By 1882, Benjamin Bird soon had cattle grazing from the upper Republican River to the Smoky Hill River.  This was a productive enterprise, even with the encroachment of the homesteaders, until the blizzard of 1886.  Benjamin Bird and his cowhands were completely unprepared for a blizzard on the plains with the driving winds and freezing temperatures.

The loss of men and cattle devastated the enterprise and eventually bankrupted the Northwest Cattle Company.

Sources - The Benkelman Post, early Courthouse Records, early newspapers and the Bird Family Records.