Tracy came to the country as early as 1867, and he cut cordwood in the Pine Bluff hills which he sold to the Union Pacific. This railroad was just then penetrating into the western part of Nebraska and they used, handled and sold large quantities of wood. Tracy had one pile of a hundred cords or more, cut in the winter of 1867, or the spring of 1868, waiting for the* acceptance of the company. In this the government had an interest, and it was cut from government land. The Indians came upon it one day, and burned it completely. The government court of claims paid the loss in full to Mr. Tracy.

Tracy graduated from wood cutting into ranching in the late sixties, and put in a small herd of cows and heifers, and from that developed into reasonably large proportions. He was not so important as to size, however, as were the Texas herds that began to arrive about that time, or the bonanza cattle outfits that later took over his ranch with the others.

During his life at Pine Bluffs he had many interesting experiences and Indian troubles, and it was one of his "herdsman" referred to by Captain Charles King in his story of "Trumpeter Fred'."

John Hunton is authority for the statement that the first real cow business in the vicinity of Fort Laramie was when Benjamin Buckley

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Mills ( Buck Mills), a Kentuckian, brought two hundred and fifty short horn cows from southern Iowa and northern Missouri in October, 186S. These he located on the Laramie river about three miles up that stream from the position occupied by the old fort. This initiation stirred others to activity.