The Hashknife Outfit :: essays research papers

Section 1 IntroductionWhen the Aztec oxen go with ("The Hashknife turnout") first got to northeastArizona, they engraft knee-high grass as far as they could see. They moved oxen fromTexas to Arizona and just kept bringing in more and more. They ran those cows onabout 2 million acres of land betwixt Flagstaff and New Mexico. The cattle grazed thegrass off and the drouth that had already started kept more grass from growing in. There was already very little water, so the cattle started dying off by the thousands. Country that used to look like an ocean of grass cancelled into a dried out, windblasted desert. During this same time, the railroads were being attribute in across the countryand cattle were starting to be shipped on trains. (This meant higher transportation costswhen cattle prices were starting to go down.) rough of the lash parts of Arizonas history was caused by the Hashknife Outfitand its cutthroat hired help. Mormon settlers were harassed, robbed, and r un out of thecountry. Cattle were stolen from the settlers and other ranches. But the worst problemsfrom the Hashknife cowboys was had by the sheepmen and the towns people. Towns likeHolbrook were the scenes of killing, drinking, whoring, and troublemaking. Thesheepmen were harassed, their sheep killed, and sometimes got themselves killed.Section 2 The Search The Hashknife Outfit pioneered large-scale cattle ranching in Arizona but theirovergrazing scarred the land, drought and hard winters killed the cattle, and theircriminal behavior made its mark on Arizonas history.The "Hashknife brand resembled a cooking utensil used by chuckwagon cooks to chopper up meat and potatoes for hash. The brand was owned by the Aztec Land and CattleCompany and was used to brand thousands of cattle. Many cattle ranches came to be cognize by their brands instead of by their company names because it was easier forpeople to remember--thats why the Aztec Land and Cattle Company was called the"Hash knife Outfit".(my mom--Arizona family verbal tradition)"The Hashknife Outfit was open up in northern Arizona in 1884. Ashareholder in the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad persuaded a group of Eastern investors to buy a million acres of grazing land offered for sale by the railroad. The new ranch,called the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, brought in 33,000 head of Texas LonghornCattle, a large remuda (herd of saddle broke horses) of horses, and the Hashknife brand"(Hughes xi). When the stockholders of the Aztec Land and Cattle Company were first meetingto form the company, cattle prices were already headed downward.