Washington Slams the Gate on Oregon Sheep
A new state law quarantines out-of-state flocks at the border, and the Oregon herders who have grazed Mount Adams every summer are suddenly out of luck — with 50,000 sheep and nowhere to put them.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Thousands of Oregon sheep are driven annually into the state of Washington to feed in the Mount Adams country. Several Umatilla county sheepmen will be interested in the new law in Washington which will seriously interfere with it in the future, and perhaps prevent it altogether. From the standpoint of a Washington sheepgrower, J. H. Cain, of White Salmon, gives a reason for the passage of the law. Mr. Cain says:
"The custom has been for years for Oregon herders to drive their stock over to the region of Mount Adams where the range is good in summer, pasture the season through and then return them to Oregon for the winter. The ranchers in the fertile valleys of Klickitat, Yakima and Skamania counties have long protested against the invasion of sheep, as they tramp out the grass and spoil the range for home stock. The law appoints a stock commissioner whose duty it is to see that no undesirable sheep are taken within the state, and it is his duty to place all bands desiring to enter into quarantine for several weeks outside the state line, until he can inspect them and pass on their condition. He is authorized to go fifty miles from the border to inspect sheep headed for Washington and warn the herders or owners back. The law practically excludes the sheep and it applies to Idaho and British Columbia as well.
"The 50,000 sheep which have been pasturing the summer months will either have to be sold or driven to the already overcrowded Blue mountains for summer range. This will be particularly hard on the Wasco and Gilliam county sheepmen who have heretofore grazed their bands on Washington range, and Grant county will also feel the effect of the law. But," Mr. Cain says, "Washington stockmen must protect themselves and their stock or they will have to sell out and leave."
“The law practically excludes the sheep and it applies to Idaho and British Columbia as well.”
More than a century before "Buy Local" and border quarantines became shorthand for protecting regional agriculture, Washington stockmen used the law to fence out competitors who fattened their flocks on shared summer range. The fight over who gets to graze the Mount Adams high country — and who pays for the wear on the land — has never really gone away.
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