Farther, farther west, was the cry.

Not more than fifty years ago, the cattlemen began ranging stock in the valley here. First among them were the Adams Reddington Company south of the river and the Knowles Baldwin Company and Ogalalla Land and Cattle Company north of the river. One of the first permanent habitations in the county was a camp built near the mouth of Blue Creek by the Ogalalla Company. The site of this old camp is

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

near where the farm buildings of William Rolfing now stand, a little over a mile west of Lewellen.

The days of the free range cattle baron extended until about the year 1889; that was the year of the last range cattle "Round up ;" then the fencing in of huge pastures began. The United States Government made such strenuous objections to the holding of government land under fence, that the large pastures were soon cut up and the deeded land ranch became the proper thing.

This part of the North Platte valley land did not look very attractive to the early settler. The big herds of cattle kept the grass eaten off and the sand trampled up ; so that the soil looked to be too sandy for any use. Furthermore, the homeseeker would often be told that the place of his choice had already been filed upon or patented, when, in reality, it was open for homestead entry. Then, too, the government corners were few and far between ; so that determining locations were very difficult. John Yenscn, a Lodgepole locator, found claims for many of the earliest settlers, pushing his surveys north of the river as early as the year 1885.