Working Ranch April/May 2025

looking back

BY BERT ENTWISTLE

Gather on the Cimmaron.

Knee High Grass olorado in the 1880s was fast becoming a place for new busi nesses and entrepreneurs. Stories of gold strikes had traveled fast, and thousands of people had come by covered wagon, horseback, or on foot to stake their claim. The cattle industry on the eastern prairie was well established and was spreading into the foothills of every mountain valley. The grass and water on the Colorado prairie were known to have problems with alkali, and everyone raising cattle was looking for new grazing land. In 1877, a 17-year-old named Sam Hartman, with adventure on his mind, took a covered wagon from Denver to the small mountain town of Saguache. From there, he trav eled by horseback, following an ancient Indian trail over Cochetopa Pass and down to the Los Pinos Indian Agency above Gunnison.

cannibal, showed up in 1874 with a wild story about people in his party dying in a blizzard. Packer hung around the area for a while, at least until he was made to take local law enforcement to the site of the tragedy. When they real ized the bodies had been butchered and eaten by a human, Alferd’s future changed dramatically. On Sam’s first trip to the North Fork Valley, he rode out to scout for possi ble spots to set up his cattle operation. From the head of Curecanti Creek, he crossed Black Mesa and found him self riding through mile after mile of knee-high grass. Sam began to see his future as a cattleman unfold in front of him. The deer and elk were growing fat on the wild grass and good water, and his cattle would too. However, there was a problem for Sam and others in the cattle business. Continued on page 105

the government and the Utes. Alonzo Hartman had developed a friendly relationship with Chief Ouray and had many dealings with him over the years. One story about Alonzo says that he worked at the agency when Alferd Packer, Colorado’s most famous

Sam’s brother, Alonzo, worked at the Los Pinos Indian Agency from 1872 through 1876 and was in charge of distributing cattle and other supplies to the Ute Indians on the reservation. The Los Pinos Agency was the first center of business and trade between

106 I APRIL / MAY 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.