Coad, the government wood contractor" up to 1872, yielded to Hunton, the contract for Fort Laramie, which Hunton held for ten years.

Hunton began to see something in ranching when the larger herds commenced to arrive, and he located a ranch about four miles up the river, and began to accumulate cattle. This he continued during the period he was supplying wood for the fort. His ranch is a short distance above the fort, being about two miles up the Laramie from the crossing of the new government canal.

The contract for wood supply was very profitable. Dan McUlvane with five outfits was employed by Hunton to assist. He received five dollars per cord and could haul twenty cords per day, making twenty dollars per day for each man and wagon. Dan told

me a short time ago, even at the price, he failed to lay up very much, until he went into the cow1 business, and the cows and increase grew into money.

In the year 1871, Dan McUlvane, now (1919) living in Cheyenne, and until recently interested in the big "Hereford Ranch," at that place, went to western Missouri and eastern Kansas and secured about two hundred and fifty young shorthorn cows, which he drove through and established his ranch, on the Chugwater, about twenty miles southwest of Fort Laramie. He crossed the Kaw river on pontoon bridges and drove his herd through the streets of Topeka, when it was but a village.

These were among the first of the ranchers west of the junction of the Platte rivers. This magnificent cow country which lies west of the forks of the Platte, and east of Fort Laramie, soon was filled with great herds. The first herds were gathered about the places protected by forts, no doubt for that very reason.