Newman ranch was followed by Newman & Hunter's, and later Newman retired. Hunter & Evans had a ranch at the confluence of Pine Creek with the Niobrara in the western part of Sheridan county as early as 1878. Among the many brands well known in this territory at an early date were Z-Bar and Lazy-33. When the granger came, the big herd was driven to Milk River, Montana, where the company continued business for a time.

Bartlett Richards & Company, which had been organized farther west, and which held their stock on the Belle Fourche and Donkey Creek, looked upon the sand hill territory abandoned by Hunter & Evans as an open field, and moved into and occupied it. The Standard Cattle Company and the Spade ranch was but a part of their activities, although they ran about twenty thousand head of cattle. Numerous "locations" were made in the hay meadows between Lakeside and Ellsworth on the present line of the Burlington, and Rushville and Gordon on the Northwestern. Bar-O, Spade, and O-Bar were among their well known brands.

They were accused of attempting to follow the precedent established by the Bay State, the Bridle Bit, Sturgis & Lane, and others, and sought to acquire title to a vast acreage of government land, through the then prevailing loose land office methods.

L. C. Baldwin, of Council Bluffs, who had several thousand cattle ranging on the Lodgepole in the vicinity of Pine Bluffs, and on Crow Creek, was accused of following the same methods of acquiring land. The best known brands of Mr. Baldwin were F-H-C and 3-3-3.