Ed Lemmon, "a real cow hand"

  This brief account of Ed Lemmon came from, "Black Hills Pioneer Stories," by Carl Leedy, 1973.

"Ed Lemmon was a real cow hand. I have taken the trouble to read about his activities. In the saddle at the age of thirteen, he became a cow hand near Cheyenne, WY. Six years later he was following the long dusty lines of bawling Texas longhorns as they wound their wearisome course to the northern ranches. Lemmon had no notches in his gun, no medals for bronc busting, no prizes for trick riding or roping. His honors cover achievements won the hard way, through the years of adherence to duty and long hours in the saddle. According to the National Livestock Association, Ed Lemmon held the world's record for saddle handling (a term used by early cow men which meant cutting out a certain brand of cattle from a round-up). He held the record for the largest number of cattle cut out and brought to the branding fire during a round-up in a single day with a total of 900 head. He covered nearly every foot of range in Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska on horseback, and knew every important brand for many years. He was manager of the L7 rance.
In 1902 he leased 865,000 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation, enclosed it with a three wire fence, made the largest fenced pasture in the world, and built a herd of 53,000 head of cattle. In 1908 he sold out and moved to the town that bears his name."

Ed was born in 1857 and died in 1945.

http://www.lemmonsd.com/


For those of you who have no idea what ranching entails just read the numbers again. 865,000 acres equals about 1351 square miles of fenced land with about 16 acres of grazing land for each cow which means the land wasn't overgrazed. If Ed worked a 16 hour day he was able to take 56 cows per hour to be branded, no small feat for one man and he probably worked a longer day at branding time. The people who settled the west were tough and hard working. Success didn't always follow them but they kept at it day in and day out.