Colorado ranchers could leave herds unsheltered and unfed year-round except breeding stock.

Evidence

The climate is so fine and the pasturage so ample that shelter and hand-feeding are never resorted to except in the case of imported breeding stock from the Eastern States, which sometimes in severe winters need to be fed in sheds for a short time. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 166

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the open-range era’s assumptions later shattered by disastrous winters — connects to ranching-history accounts of the 1880s.