Sales of farm lands of this kind forced by the county, and numerous foreclosures of tax liens by individuals, was the opportune time for the formation of ranches and putting together tracts of 1,000 and 2,000 acres by those who "hung on" to the country, and the laying of foundations for many fortunes amassed by ranchmen in later years.

The season of 1885 was good, and although farming operations were, of course, limited, returns were satisfactory, and inspired the newcomers with faith in the country and to doubt the statements so often put forth by cattlemen that it was fitted only for range cattle and Indians.

During the next six years -- 1886 to 1891 -- settlers just plodded along and "farmed," most of them with inferior work animals and inadequate machinery. Generally speaking, farming was indifferently done and crop yields not what they might have been, although seasons were fair.

In 1892 came a severe drouth, accompanied by the panic and extremely low prices, and every day added to the sombre color of the industrial life of the county, and made the problem of existence more complex. The history of the nation may record that the panic came in 1893, but the fact is that its fury was upon all of western Nebraska as early as the summer of 1892. Dry seasons lasted for seven years.

No single epic in the history of Dawes county holds so much of human interest as the story of the pioneer homebuilders who faced the drouth, the panic and the low prices of the '90's. The pathos of those drouth stricken days, when stout hearts yielded to disheartening conditions; those days "when all the west went broke," was an experience never to be forgotten by those who witnessed or were a part of the exodus of a large portion of our people from their homes in poverty and in doubt as to where they would go or what the future had in store for them.