"On the way," said Neeley, "I figured that the way to sell the hay and be sure it was sold was to open an account with them. So I sold them the hay at their figure, and took as part payment six mares valued at $900, which I brought home with me." Frank had made a shrewd move, for he not only got some good horse stock, but they sent a large number of their horses to Mitchell valley to winter feed. After that year John R. Stilts built his large sod barns an;!, brought them regularly there to feed.

All these antedated the real breeding up of the pintail bronchos that were the first horses here. T. J. James brought a good sire into the valley ; John H. Hall's "Neptune" was a good horse; Ed Thornton's "Ben Laddie" is the cire of many fine horses.

After 1900, there were many others brought in. Matt Schumacher brought in, and bred some of the finest Belgians. In 1903, W. L. Wallace, T. D. Deutsch and Jerry Ragan brought an excellent Belgian from Iowa. The sire that belonged to Hall, Sayre & Company was a fine coach and was kept at Gering. These are a few of the people responsible for bringing in good horse stock.

Violent Storms

This portion of the state has been free generally from violent storms. The emigrants moving into the far west occasionally were inconvenienced by the sudden mountain storms that still visit here once in a while. They sometimes were just sudden deluges of w"ater that lasted an hour or two. At other times they were accompanied by hail of such severity that such legends as that of Cannon Ball river result. Along this stream are piles of rounded -rocks and Indian tradition is that they fell in a mountain storm.