This 1893 picture of the upper quarters of the British-owned Walrond Ranch provides an excellent view of the southern foothill landscape. The chinook winds that descended from the Rocky Mountains on the horizon and barred the winter snows to permit almost year-round grazing, along with the well-watered character of the terrain (the Old Man's River in this picture), and the numerous sheltered valleys that afforded protection for livestock made the foothill country the preferred grazing area and hence the first settled part of the southwestern prairie region.
Note the general ranch layout, the foreman's quarters on the extreme left, the cowboys' bunkhouse on the middle left, and the ten cowboys in the "cutting" corral presumably getting ready to separate certain animals from among the "bunch" gathered at the opposite end of the corral. The single remaining haystack of the ranch's emergency winter feed supply suggests that the picture was taken in the early spring.
