Dave
Well-known member
Back in the day some of those early settler, cattlemen made some pretty epic rides. So what are the stories of ones in your area?
The first and by far the biggest cattle man in this area was Ben Snipes. He was a young man of little or no resources. He bought some cattle with borrowed money, drove them to this area, fattened them on the grass, and drove this small herd to the Canadian gold fields. This small herd was the start of tens of thousands of cattle.
At some point in the 1860's/70's and herd of his cattle got into some sort of trouble up on the Canadian border. When he got word of this he was in The Dalles Oregon. He saddled up and rode the 300 + miles which included swimming the Columbia
River twice in 58 hours. And he did it on one horse. Today it would take about 7 hours to drive from The Dalles to where the Okanogan River comes out of Canada. That would follow pretty close to the same route that Ben took. Except today a person would be driving 60/70 MPH all the way. And I can imagine swimming a horse across the Columbia.
The first and by far the biggest cattle man in this area was Ben Snipes. He was a young man of little or no resources. He bought some cattle with borrowed money, drove them to this area, fattened them on the grass, and drove this small herd to the Canadian gold fields. This small herd was the start of tens of thousands of cattle.
At some point in the 1860's/70's and herd of his cattle got into some sort of trouble up on the Canadian border. When he got word of this he was in The Dalles Oregon. He saddled up and rode the 300 + miles which included swimming the Columbia
River twice in 58 hours. And he did it on one horse. Today it would take about 7 hours to drive from The Dalles to where the Okanogan River comes out of Canada. That would follow pretty close to the same route that Ben took. Except today a person would be driving 60/70 MPH all the way. And I can imagine swimming a horse across the Columbia.
