Cow time in this country will soon be over ; the grangers are already hyar; thar's two of 'em aholden down Squaw crick this mawnin.' I jest come by and talked to 'em and seed their government paper writin's fer the land ; and you shore can't beat the game. So my advice to you-all to hurry up and git some corn-fed gal to adopt ye and then turn in and hep her make a livin' jest like ye was born a granger."

A few like Bob and Ben Harrison and Billy Lockler took his advice and stayed with the country, married and adapted themselves to the changed conditions. But the most of them pushed out into New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana or wherever a range country could be found. The dissolution of the cowboy clans of Dawes county was practically complete by the summer of 1885.

"Dancers Hill" in Sioux county is the first reference to dancing in northwestern Nebraska. "Dancing Buttes" in Dawes count}- is also old with Indian tradition. But the dance hall came with the saloon and the forts ; the stage station and the railroad. Johnny Owens and John Cotton were two of the well known characters who maintained such places in the early years.

In 1884 Cotton's place near Fort Robinson ceased to operate. It was maintained just over the line of the reservation near the present site of the city of Crawford. Here were frequent fracases between the cowboys and the soldiers. John Cotton was an ex-cow-puncher. One days in the justice court at Fort Robinson where Cotton was an trial for some misdemeanor Jack Talbott, the foreman of the Oxyoke ranch, was asked to state his opinion as to Cotton's general reputation. He replied with this quaint expression: