View of the Grant-Kohrs Ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though there are ranches in other areas. People who own or operate a ranch are called stockgrowers or ranchers. Ranching is also a method used to raise less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu, and alpacas.

Ranches generally consist of large areas, but may be of nearly any size. In the western United States, many ranches are a combination of privately owned land supplemented by grazing leases on land under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management. If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land, the ranch may also engage in a limited amount of farming, raising crops for feeding the animals, such as hay and feed grains.

Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists are called guest ranches or, colloquially, "dude ranches." Most working ranches do not cater to guests, though they may allow private hunters or outfitters onto their property to hunt native wildlife. However, in recent years, a few struggling smaller operations have added some dude ranch features, such as horseback rides, cattle drives or guided hunting, in an attempt to bring in additional income. Ranching is part of the iconography of the "Wild West" as seen in Western movies and rodeos.

Ranch occupations[link]

The person who runs a ranch is usually called a rancher, but the terms cattleman, stockgrower, or stockman are also sometimes used. A person who primarily raises young stock sometimes is called a cow-calf operator or a cow-calf man. This person is usually the owner, though in some cases, particularly where there is absentee ownership, it is the ranch manager or ranch foreman.

The people who are employees of the rancher and involved in handling livestock are called a number of terms, including cowhand, ranch hand, and cowboy. People exclusively involved with handling horses are sometimes called wranglers.

Origins of ranching[link]

Ranching and the cowboy tradition originated in Spain, out of the necessity to handle large herds of grazing animals on dry land from horseback. During the Reconquista, members of the Spanish nobility and various military orders received large land grants that the Kingdom of Castile had conquered from the Moors. These landowners were to defend the lands put into their control and could use them for earning revenue. In the process it was found that open-range breeding of sheep and cattle (under the Mesta system) was the most suitable use for vast tracts, particularly in the parts of Spain now known as Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Andalusia.

History in North America[link]

The historic 101 Ranch in Oklahoma showing the ranchhouse, corrals, and out-buildings.

Spanish North America[link]

When the Conquistadors came to the Americas in the 16th century, followed by settlers, they brought their cattle and cattle-raising techniques with them. Huge land grants by the Spanish (and later Mexican) government, part of the hacienda system, allowed large numbers of animals to roam freely over vast areas. A number of different traditions developed, often related to the original location in Spain from which a settlement originated. For example, many of the traditions of the Jalisco charros in central Mexico come from the Salamanca charros of Castile^{[citation needed]}. The Vaquero tradition of Northern Mexico was more organic, developed to adapt to the characteristics of the region from Spanish sources by cultural interaction between the Spanish elites and the native and mestizo peoples.^[1]

United States[link]

An 1898 photochrom of a round-up in or near the town of Cimarron, Colorado, USA.

As settlers from the United States moved west, they brought cattle breeds developed on the east coast and in Europe along with them, and adapted their management to the drier lands of the west by borrowing key elements of the Spanish vaquero culture.

However, there were cattle on the eastern seaboard. Deep Hollow Ranch, 110 miles (180 km) east of New York City in Montauk, New York, claims to be the first ranch in the United States, having continuously operated since 1658.^[2] The ranch makes the somewhat debatable claim of having the oldest cattle operation in what today is the United States, though cattle had been run in the area since European settlers purchased land from the Indian people of the area in 1643.^[3] Although there were substantial numbers of cattle on Long Island, as well as the need to herd them to and from common grazing lands on a seasonal basis, the cattle handlers actually lived in houses built on the pasture grounds, and cattle were ear-marked for identification, rather than being branded.^[3] The only actual "cattle drives" held on Long Island consisted of one drive in 1776, when the Island's cattle were moved in a failed attempt to prevent them from being captured by the British during the American Revolution, and three or four drives in the late 1930s, when area cattle were herded down Montauk Highway to pasture ground near Deep Hollow Ranch .^[3]

The Open Range[link]

The prairie and desert lands of what today is Mexico and the western United States were well-suited to "open range" grazing. For example, American bison had been a mainstay of the diet for the Native Americans in the Great Plains for centuries. Likewise, cattle and sheep, descended from animals brought over from Europe, were simply turned loose in the spring after their young were born and allowed to roam with little supervision and no fences, then rounded up in the fall, with the mature animals driven to market and the breeding stock brought close to the ranch headquarters for greater protection in the winter. The use of livestock branding allowed the cattle owned by different ranchers to be identified and sorted. Beginning with the settlement of Texas in the 1840s, and expansion both north and west from that time, through the Civil War and into the 1880s, ranching dominated western economic activity.

Along with ranchers came the need for agricultural crops to feed both humans and livestock, and hence many farmers also came west along with ranchers. Many operations were "diversified," with both ranching and farming activities taking place. With the Homestead Act of 1862, more settlers came west to set up farms. This created some conflict, as increasing numbers of farmers needed to fence off fields to prevent cattle and sheep from eating their crops. Barbed wire, invented in 1874, gradually made inroads in fencing off privately owned land, especially for homesteads. There was some reduction of land on the Great Plains open to grazing.

End of the Open Range[link]

The severe winter of 1886-1887 brought an end to the open range. Waiting for a Chinook, by C.M. Russell.

The end of the open range was not brought about by a reduction in land due to crop farming, but by overgrazing. Cattle stocked on the open range created a tragedy of the commons as each rancher sought increased economic benefit by grazing too many animals on public lands that "nobody" owned. However, being a non-native species, the grazing patterns of ever-increasing numbers of cattle slowly reduced the quality of the rangeland, in spite of the simultaneous massive slaughter of American bison that occurred. The winter of 1886-1887 was one of the most severe on record, and livestock that were already stressed by reduced grazing died by the thousands. Many large cattle operations went bankrupt, and others suffered severe financial losses. Thus, after this time, ranchers also began to fence off their land and negotiated individual grazing leases with the American government so that they could keep better control of the pasture land available to their own animals.

Ranching in Hawaii[link]

Ranching in Hawaii developed independently of that in the continental United States. In colonial times, Capt. George Vancouver gave several head of cattle to the Hawaiian king, Pai`ea Kamehameha, monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and by the early 19th century, they had multiplied considerably, to the point that they were wreaking havoc throughout the countryside. About 1812, John Parker, a sailor who had jumped ship and settled in the islands, received permission from Kamehameha to capture the wild cattle and develop a beef industry.

The Hawaiian style of ranching originally included capturing wild cattle by driving them into pits dug in the forest floor. Once tamed somewhat by hunger and thirst, they were hauled out up a steep ramp, and tied by their horns to the horns of a tame, older steer (or ox) and taken to fenced-in areas. The industry grew slowly under the reign of Kamehameha's son Liholiho (Kamehameha II). When Liholiho's son, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), visited California, then still a part of Mexico, he was impressed with the skill of the Mexican vaqueros. In 1832, he invited several to Hawaii to teach the Hawaiian people how to work cattle.

The Hawaiian cowboy came to be called the paniolo, a Hawaiianized pronunciation of español. Even today, the traditional Hawaiian saddle and many other tools of the ranching trade have a distinctly Mexican look, and many Hawaiian ranching families still carry the surnames of vaqueros who made Hawaii their home.

Ranching in South America[link]

In Argentina, ranches are known as estancias, and in Brazil, they are called fazendas. In much of South America, including Ecuador and Colombia, the term hacienda may be used. Ranchero or Rancho are also generic terms used throughout Latin America.

In the colonial period, from the pampas regions of South America all the way to the Minas Gerais state in Brazil, including the semi-arid pampas of Argentina and the south of Brazil, were often well-suited to ranching, and a tradition developed that largely paralleled that of Mexico and the United States. The gaucho culture of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are among the cattle ranching traditions born during the period. However, in the 20th century, cattle raising expanded into less-suitable areas of the Pantanal. Particularly in Brazil, the 20th century marked the rapid growth of deforestation, as rain forest lands were cleared by slash and burn methods that allowed grass to grow for livestock, but also led to the depletion of the land within only a few years. Many of indigenous peoples of the rain forest opposed this form of cattle ranching and protested the forest being burnt down to set up grazing operations and farms. This conflict is still a concern in the region today.

Ranches outside the Americas[link]

Cattle in a dehesa in Bollullos Par del Condado, Spain

In Spain, where the origins of ranching can be traced, there are ganaderías operating on dehesa-type land, where fighting bulls are raised.

The term "ranch" and the need for vast grazing area is not used in the British Isles, where there is far less land area and sufficient rainfall to allow the raising of cattle on much smaller farms. From medieval times, cattle were traditionally raised in the small-area bocage. The only stock-raising lands in the British Isles that are anywhere close to the size of the ranches in other nations are the largest hill farms in the upland areas of the United Kingdom. For similar reasons, the concept of a "ranch" is also not seen to any significant degree in most of western Europe outside of Spain.

In Australia, the equivalent agricultural lands are known as 'stations' in the context of what stock they carry — usually referred to as cattle stations or sheep stations. The largest cattle stations in the world are located in Australia's dry rangeland in the outback. Owners of these stations are known as 'grazier', especially if they reside on the property. Employees are known as stockmen, jackaroos and ringers rather than cowboys. A number of Australian cattle stations are larger than 10,000 km², with the greatest being Anna Creek station which measures 23,677 km² in area (approximately eight times the largest US Ranch). Anna Creek is owned by S Kidman & Co. New Zealanders use the term runs and stations.

See also[link]

• Animal husbandry
• Cowboy
• Farm
• Guest ranch (also known as a Dude Ranch)
• Homestead (buildings)
• Horse
• Hunting
• List of Ranches and Stations
• Movie ranch
• Pastoralism
• Ranch-style house
• Rangeland

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Blunt, Judy. Breaking Clean Knopf: 2002, hardcover, ISBN 0-375-40131-8
• Campbell, Ida Foster and Alice Foster Hill. Triumph and Tragedy: A History of Thomas Lyons and the LCs, High-Lonesome Books, Silver City, New Mexico, 2002, softcover, ISBN 0-944383-61-0
• Ellis, George F., The Bell Ranch As I Knew It, Lowell Press: 1973, hardcover, ISBN 0-913504-15-7
• Greenwood, Kathy L. Heart-Diamond, University of North Texas Press, 1989, hardcover, ISBN 0-929398-08-4
• Paul, Virginia. This Was Cattle Ranching: Yesterday and Today, Superior Publishing Company, Seattle, Washington, 1973
• Ward, Delbert R. Great Ranches of the United States, Ganada Press, San Antonio, Texas, 1993, paperback, ISBN 7-88051-025-1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ranching

• The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Native Ranching and Rodeo Life on the Plains and Plateau
• The Handbook of Texas Online: Ranching
• Society for Range Management
• Western Watersheds Project
• Cattle Ranges of the Southwest, published 1898, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Guide to ranch archives in Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech
• Cowboys to Cattlemen Virtual Museum Exhibit and Lesson Plans at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS from National Park Service

Bristol Palin
Bristol Palin at a book signing in Phoenix, Arizona in July 2011.
Born	Bristol Sheeran Marie Palin[1] (1990-10-18) October 18, 1990 (age 21)[2] Wasilla, Alaska, U.S.
Residence	Anchorage, Alaska
Alma mater	Juneau-Douglas High School West Anchorage High School Wasilla High School - (High school diploma, 2009)
Occupation	Spokesperson
Years active	2009–present
Partner	Levi Johnston (2005–2009, 2010)
Children	Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston (b. 2008)
Parents	Sarah Palin Todd Palin
Relatives	Track, Willow, Piper, Trig

Bristol Sheeran Marie Palin (born October 18, 1990) is the second child and oldest daughter of former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd.

After Bristol Palin became a single mother at age 18, she began to publicly advocate teenage pregnancy prevention, and is now a paid speaker on the subject of teen pregnancy.

She competed in the fall 2010 season of Dancing with the Stars, where she received lower scores from the judges than some other contestants but was voted through week after week by fans.^[3] She reached the finals, finishing in third place.

Early life and education[link]

Palin was born and raised in Wasilla, Alaska.^[1][4] She was named "Bristol" after the Bristol Inn where her mother Sarah was employed; Bristol, Connecticut, the headquarters city of ESPN, where her mother Sarah hoped to work as a sportscaster; and the Bristol Bay area of Alaska, where her father Todd grew up.^[5][6]

Beginning in 2005, Bristol attended Juneau-Douglas High School and began dating Levi Johnston.^[7][8] In 2008, she briefly lived in Anchorage with her aunt and uncle and attended West Anchorage High School. She returned to Wasilla, where she graduated from Wasilla High School in May 2009.^[9][10]

Career[link]

Teen pregnancy prevention spokesperson[link]

In May 2009, at age 18, Palin started working with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy to inform young people about the negative consequences of teenage pregnancy. The campaign's spokesman, said that working with Palin made sense, because "she's had the highest-profile teen pregnancy of the year."^[11] Several interviews and pictorials for similar organizations followed. Also in May 2009 Palin was named a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Ambassador for the Candie’s Foundation,^[12][13] a teen pregnancy prevention organization that is a division of the Candie's clothing brand.^[14] In April 2011 it was reported that Palin was paid more than $262,000^[15] by the foundation for her work in 2009. This level of compensation, which constituted 12 percent of the Candie's Foundation operating budget, was criticized by some commentators^[who?] as excessive.^[16][17] Her duties as a paid spokeswoman involved attending town hall meetings, public service announcements, and giving interviews on morning talk shows.

On Good Morning America, she stated, "Regardless of what I did personally, abstinence is the only 100% foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy."^[18] In another interview on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts she stated that 'Pause Before You Play hits a wider range of message, it can mean pause and go get a condom, it can be pause and think about your life, or it could be pause and wait until marriage.'^[19] Before Palin became a spokeswoman, she told Fox News that abstinence is "not realistic at all", but that she would like it to become more accepted among people her age.^[20] Several weeks later, she stated that that quote had been "taken out of context."^[21] However, in a July 2011 interview with Drew Pinsky, she said she doesn’t want to "be named as an abstinence preacher…. I’m not out there saying don’t have sex. I hate that kind of stuff. Birth control needs to be used effectively each and every single time if you’re gonna be having sex.... I’m not advocating [abstinence] for everyone else."^[22]

Her role as a spokesperson has been controversial. Bonnie Fuller, former editor-in-chief of YM, has questioned whether the net effect of Palin's presentations has glamorized rather than discouraged teen pregnancy, noting that the "picture perfect" imagery of a People magazine spread seemed to make her "the poster girl for teen momhood."^[23] Meghan McCain stated her support for sex education and criticized Palin's sexual abstinence campaign, saying it was "not realistic for this generation."^[24] Former MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann declared Palin his "Worst Person in the World" for her advocacy,^[25] to which Palin replied "Accusing me of hypocrisy is by now, an old canard... Parents warn their children about the mistakes they made so they are not repeated. Former gang members travel to schools to educate teenagers about the risks of gang life. Recovered addicts lecture to others about the risks of alcohol and drug abuse. And yes, a teen mother talks about the benefits of preventing teen pregnancy."^[26]

Palin works on the speakers' circuit asking between $15,000 and $30,000 for each appearance. She has signed with Single Source Speakers and is listed on their website as available for conferences, fundraisers, special events and holidays, as well as women's, youth, abstinence and pro-life programs.^[27][28]

In January 2011 she was invited to speak at Sexual Responsibility Week at Washington University in St. Louis, but students protested the high fee she was to be paid out of student-generated funds and her appearance was cancelled.^[29][30]

Business venture[link]

In September 2009, Palin formed BSMP, a lobbying, public relations and political consulting services firm.^[31] While the initial focus will be working with Candie's Foundation, BSMP plans to work with additional clients.^[32]

Television[link]

[edit] The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Palin appeared in an episode of the ABC Family network series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, playing a friend of the fictional character Amy, a 15 year old who is dealing with an unexpected pregnancy. She filmed the scenes in Los Angeles in March 2010; the episode aired on July 5, 2010.^{[33][34][35][36]} "I like doing speaking engagements and stuff like that," she told E!. "I don't think I'll be doing any more acting in the future."^[37]

[edit] Dancing with the Stars

Palin joined the Fall 2010 season of Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), partnered with professional Mark Ballas, who is a two time champion on the show, having won with Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi in season 6, and with Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson in season 8.^[38]

Her long run on the show despite her frequently lower scores from the judges, attracted media attention and speculation.^[39][40] Questions were raised about the integrity of the public voting process^[40] including allegations of fraudulent online voting using multiple e-mail addresses. Executives at ABC and the show's executive producer, Conrad Green, stated that "checks and balances" in the system, including IP address verification, prevent such voting practices, and that "[t]here's nothing in the voting that looks dissimilar to previous seasons."^[41][42] Nonetheless, Green speculated that Palin may have received votes for political reasons by backers of her mother in the Tea Party movement,^[43] and support from older viewers who had maternal feelings toward her due to her youth and lack of prior experience.^[44] Palin herself credited her success to the support of her fans who were tuning in each week to see her improvement.^[39]

Palin's success on the show attracted other negative attention, including death threats against her. In one instance, suspicious white powder was received by the show. The powder turned out to be harmless, but as a result, security on the show was tightened.^[45]

Palin and her partner finished in third place. Prior to the final show, Palin stated that winning "would be like a big middle finger out there to all the people out there who hate my mom and hate me."^[46] Following the competition, she remarked that she was happy with her third place finish, that prayer and faith had helped her, and that she had grown as a person.^[3]

Due to her dancing rehearsal schedule, she said she forgot to mail in her absentee ballot for the November 2010 general election.^[47]

[edit] Sarah Palin's Alaska

Bristol made an appearance on the TLC travelogue/documentary Sarah Palin's Alaska, helping on a commercial halibut fishing boat.^[48] During the airing of the first episode, Bristol posted defensive comments on Facebook against posters who criticized the Palin family. Some of Bristol's comments included profanity,^[49] for which she later issued an apology.^[50]

[edit] Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp

Bristol Palin's docu-series "Life's A Tripp" will be premiering in the fall season of 2012 Lifetime in the US. Lifetime has ordered 10 episodes for original broadcast, which will follow Palin as she adjusts back to normal routine in Alaska.^[51]

Music video[link]

While still competing on DWTS, Palin appeared in a music video for an Alaskan symphony rock band, Static Cycle. The video was shot at the Ice Museum in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, with Palin dressed in a fur hat and coat and played a mother-nature-type role of melting the ice.^[52][53]

Memoir[link]

In June 2011, Palin released a memoir, co-written with Nancy French, entitled Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, in which she candidly discusses aspects of her personal life, including tensions with the McCain family and losing her virginity. The book has received mixed reviews from critics and readers alike, many of them criticizing her for releasing a memoir at only 20 years old.^[54][55] The book appeared briefly on the New York Times bestseller lists in July 2011.^[56]

Personal life[link]

2008 Republican National Convention and pregnancy announcement[link]

When Sarah Palin was chosen as John McCain's vice presidential running mate in late August 2008, his advisers already knew of Bristol's pregnancy, which they believed would be a political liability.^[2] On September 1, the opening day of the 2008 Republican National Convention, it was publicly announced that Palin was pregnant and engaged to Johnston, the father of her unborn child.^[7] Palin's entire family, along with Johnston, appeared at the convention.^[7][57] McCain's advisers reportedly thought a wedding between Johnston and Palin would boost the waning popularity of the McCain-Palin ticket.^[2] Johnston denied claims that he was being pressured into a shotgun wedding, stating, "We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid. That was the plan from the start."^[7]

Motherhood[link]

Palin and Johnston's son, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, was born in 2008.^[58][59] She denied claims that her mother's pro life views influenced her decision to give birth to and raise her son Tripp: "It doesn't matter what my mom's views are on it. It was my decision."^[60][61]

Palin and Johnston broke off their engagement in March 2009.^[62] In November 2009, a custody and child support case was filed in a local Alaska court. Palin asked the court to use pseudonyms for herself and Johnston to keep the normally public proceedings private, arguing that the media attention would not be good for the child.^[63] Johnston argued for open proceedings, saying he wanted the case to be decided on the merits,^[63] and that he did "not feel protected against Sarah Palin in a closed proceeding."^[64] In December 2009, on Tripp's first birthday, the judge ruled in favor of Johnston, and it was publicly announced that the pair had been battling for legal custody. Palin, who wished to win full custody rights and child support consistent with Johnston's income, stated that Johnston had "exercised sporadic visitation rights" and "wants the rights for his own self-promotion".^[63][64][65] Johnston sought shared custody and lower child support payments. In February 2010 a judge ruled that Johnston had to pay back child support, with a hearing set to determine the amount of ongoing support payments.^[66][67]

That month, Palin and her son began living in a condo she had purchased in Anchorage, where she was working at a dermatologist's office and taking business courses at a community college.^[68][69] In July 2010, Palin and Johnston announced that they had reunited and were again engaged,^[70][71] but less than three weeks later, they ended their second engagement.^{[72][73][74][75][76]} In August 2010 she moved out of the condo and returned to her parents' home,^[77] and the couple reached an agreement giving primary custody to Palin and visitation rights and child support responsibility to Johnston.^[78] In December 2010, Palin purchased a five-bedroom house in Maricopa, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, for $172,000 in cash, according to Pinal County property records.^[79]

References[link]