The Hashknife Outfit :: essays research papers

Section 1 IntroductionWhen the Aztec cows community ("The Hashknife habilitate") first got to northeastArizona, they gear up knee-high grass as far as they could see. They moved oxen fromTexas to Arizona and just unplowed bringing in more and more. They ran those cattle onabout 2 million acres of land between Flagstaff and New Mexico. The cattle grazed thegrass off and the drought 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 anticipate like an ocean of grass turned into a dried out, windblasted desert. During this same time, the railroads were being put in across the countryand cattle were starting to be shipped on trains. (This meant higher transportation costswhen cattle prices were starting to go down.) Some of the worst parts of Arizonas history was caused by the Hashknife Outfitand its cutthroat hired help. Mormon settlers were harassed, robbed, and run 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 hunt 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 tochop 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 beknown 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"Hashknife Outfit".(my mom--Arizona family verbal tradition)"The Hashknife Outfit was established in northern Arizona in 1884. Ashareholder in the Atlantic and Pacific sandbag persuaded a group of Eastern investors topurchase 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.