George and everyone,

As I understand the work, the cattle dipping tanks were part of the
quarantine procedures on most of the drive trails.  The idea was to kill the
parasites (ticks) that might hitch a ride and spread disease from one region
to another.  Thus while ranches had tanks, I would also expect them to be at
key nodes in the drive routes linking range land to rail heads throughout
the region.  If you kept dipped cows on your ranch, but then drove them over
country with infected cows, you would have to dip them again before entering
a "clean" area.

I also remember conversations with Aussie colleagues indicating a similar
connection.

Cheers,
Tim
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Timothy James Scarlett
Assistant Professor of Archaeology
Program in Industrial History and Archaeology
Department of Social Sciences
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295 USA
Tel (906) 487-2359 Fax (906) 487-2468 Internet [log in to unmask]
MTU Website: http://www.industrialarchaeology.net
SHA Website: http://www.sha.org  SIA Website: http://www.sia-web.org
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you can always tell a rookie...but you can't tell 'em much!
--ShaunAnne Tangney's father.