Thought this tidbit might be of interest to HISTARCH readers.  It coincides
with 150th Anniversary of the founding of Utah by the Mormons.
 
Mike Polk
 
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From the Deseret News, Salt Lake City (May 2, 1997):
 
What happened to the West's oxen?
 
Beefy pioneer heroes have mostly vanished, ending up on dinner
tables.
 
By Danny Katayama
Associated Press writer

      CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In the settling of the West, they were essential but
unsung heroes. They symbolized the rugged, durable, arduous traits required
to
make the odyssey into the American frontier.
      Yet while westward expansion is glorified, the ox appears to be
forgotten, and
the animal is rarely found on the lands it helped settle. In fact, there's a
question
whether the species known as the ox really existed in the West or whether it
was the
product of cross-breeding.
      History books and documentaries say the ox played a prominent role in
the
movement west — pulling wagons along the Oregon and Mormon trails, both of
which weaved through the heart of Wyoming.
      Thousands of people are expected this summer to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of the trek made by Mormons and to retrace their journey. But,
along
that route and across most of the Wyoming landscape, nary an ox can be seen.
      So what's become of the ox?
      "It is a thing of the past — it is like an endangered species," said
Gerald Olsen,
a third-generation rancher who lives near the path of the Mormon, Oregon and
Overland trails. "We can bring oxen back at any time if people had the
brainpower
on how to train them. But the only reason to bring back a thing like this is
for a
hobby."
      In 1850, the U.S. Census reported there were 1.7 million oxen in the
nation. By
1890, that number dropped to about 1.17 million nationally, 720,767 in the
West
and only 11,684 in Wyoming.
      Such statistics are no longer kept, according to officials with the
Wyoming
Agriculture Statistical Services.
      The truth may be that oxen, purely put, were never here — at least as a
distinct
animal. In that light, ox as a special breed is as real as the big blue Babe
of Paul
Bunyan lore.
      "It's just a myth. Oxen were probably a variety of breeds," said Robert
Boyd, a
professor in the Agriculture Department of Laramie County Community College
in
Cheyenne. "So as such there was probably never a true breed."
      The mystique and misconceptions of the animal are widespread, said Jim
Mattson, site manager of a living history farm in Minnesota that uses a
couple of
hybrid oxen.
      "Typically, we have 30,000 to 40,000 visitors a year and many of them
have
that question: What happened to them?" said Mattson, whose farm duplicates
pioneer life between 1850 and 1876. "We have to really explain what they
are."
      Mattson and Boyd say the ox could have been any crossbreed, possibly
reddish
or brown or spotted and possibly including Hereford, Longhorn, line-back or
shorthorn crossbreeds to develop muscle for work on the range.
      The animals typically were allowed to continue building muscle as draft
animals
beyond 10 years of age, and they grew to about 2,000 pounds. An average steer
for beef purposes is about half that size.
      Part of the ox's demise — or perhaps, more accurately, its
transformation —
can be traced to breeding patterns. Settlers, having arrived at their
destinations,
found the animals more productive for breeding beef cattle than moving wagons
or
plowing fields.
      And progress eventually erased the need for these beasts of burden —
much
like motorcycles now are taking the place of horses for herding cattle.
      "Soon as they got modern transportation, we could plow better in the
fields with
a dadgum tractor," said Olsen, who lives in Nebraska, in "spitting distance"
of the
Wyoming state line. "They didn't disappear from the planet. They were just
turned
out to pasture. Instead of working in the fields, you eat them."