Item Detail
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30685
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4
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3
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English
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The Cattle Industry of Utah 1850-1900: An Historical Profile
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Utah Historical Quarterly
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32
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3
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Champaign, IL
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University of Illinois Press
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182-197
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"When the first Mormon settlers established themselves in the Salt Lake Valley, they brought with them 3,100 head of cattle, 887 cows, and 2,213 working oxen. They were of course founding a religious haven, not a ranching empire. This large number of cattle thus represented the pulling power needed for the move west, not a beef-producing potential to be turned free upon the grasses of Zion. But meat demands developed; the grasslands of desert and mountains were ready for use. Naturally, if not inevitably, Utah became a grazing state. This did not mean that Utah was a leader in the production of meat. Other states had more acres of range and sent more cattle to market. But it did mean that Utah's economy, more than some of her citizens realized, had been significantly enriched by her cattle industry."
[from author]