A series of fires, blizzards, and droughts occured, but also, ranchers crowded the open range with cattle, prices dropped big time, and then ranchers faced and increase of competition, and then barbed wire was patented.
The Gold Rush in California.
The cattle boom is stupid. Who cares when it ended, it ended because people were stupid! So it doesn't matter when it ended. There were to many cattle and the open-range declined due to barbed wire. It lasted from 1849 to 1862.
The railroad was the advancement in technology that directly contributed to the cattle boom. Out in the west they created large cattle kingdoms.
The cattle boom occurred because people started to settle down after the Civil War. It became practical to own a lot of cattle at this time.
RailroadsRAILROADS
decline people in farms
After the American Civil War, which was around 1865.
It didn't bring an end to the cattle boom, but rather began the end before it started. The Civil War had just started over a year ago when this act was passed in Congress, so it had, at the time, no effect on the cattle boom because, even at that time, the "cattle boom" hadn't even began. The boom or demand for beef in the American economy didn't reach its peak until after the war, where war veterans and other folks headed west with high profits in sight when the demand for beef back East had skyrocketed. They took those cattle that were accumulating in the southwestern portion of the United States, branded them, claimed ranch land to begin raising the cattle on, and hired work-ready men to herd the excess stock north to the markets. But, with the end of the war came the drive west for pioneers and their families. They began to settle land wherever they could, and made it so that rouge cattle or open-range cattle couldn't graze or ruin their land, and this was made possible through the beginning of the use of barbed wire fences. The more settlers that came in and the more land became settled, the harder it was to drive cattle north to markets without running into conflicts. Also, with more settlers came more cattle through importations from European countries and introduction of new breeds, such as Hereford and Aberdeen Angus, two of the beef breeds that made their stake in America long after the Spanish Criollos were imported to America in the late 1400's. With more cattle, came less demand and prices went down. And when prices go down, it brings an end to the cattle boom to the American West.
Many smaller towns prospered because of the cattle boom, because it brought the cattle herders and cowboys to town. When the cattle drive was finished, the cowboys were anxious to spend their money.
refrigerated railcar
Barbed wire fenced off open range, the range wars, harsh weather and disease, etc. etc. Hope this helped.
Expansion and the railroad system lead to the boom in the cattle industry. Drought, diseases, a decline in demand, and a harsh winter that killed thousands of heads of cattle all contributed to the bust.