Sheep Rancher Faces Justice for Range Trespass
A sheep man is arrested and bound over to the superior court for illegally grazing his flock on cattle range land.
Alexander McCallister, an itinerant sheep man, was arrested last week under the state sheep trespass law, on complaint of Wm. Ebey, a Northern Pacific land agent. McCallister’s band of about 500 sheep was desolating the cattle range and Justice Benton bound him over to the superior court in $500 bonds.
“McCallister’s band of about 500 sheep was desolating the cattle range.”
Conflicts between sheep and cattle ranchers were legendary in the American West, stemming from the degradation of public rangelands and competition for forage. Today, range management continues to be a contentious environmental and economic issue in Central Washington, though the legal battles have shifted to permit systems rather than personal arrests.
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