“Flagging the Lines”: Basque immigrant sheepherders and the early US Forest Administration in Nevada, 1890-1920

Abstract

In the early twentieth century, the US Forest Service began to exclude itinerant sheep operations from the public-domain lands it administered: the National Forests. But beyond the National Forests, the extensive public-domain lands devoted to grazing were not regulated. To some local ranchers and stockmen, the increasing presence of itinerant sheepherders, including Basque immigrants, represented the first of a growing number of competitors on Nevada’s public-domain lands. These stockmen blamed itinerant sheepherders for all the problems affecting the water and grassland ecosystems, such as the deterioration of the ranges and the fouling of springs and streams. Their representatives requested an expansion of National Forest boundaries as a means of asserting exclusive use of the range for stockmen. Although at first the Forest Service keenly appreciated the problems of local stock raisers, it opposed the idea of expanding the National Forests in Nevada solely for the purpose of range control. This article explores how some ranchers advocated expanding the National Forest lands within the State of Nevada as a strategy to protect their economic interests and force itinerant sheepherders out of business.