NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

August 5, 1999

Plains Folk: Of Pastureland and Peter Perrin

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

©1999 Plains Folk

The Perrin boys were lightly rooted in the ranching country at the base of the Cypress Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan. From there, they roamed: one of them to ride broncs for the queen with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show in London, and another, Jess, to find good work somewhat closer to home, on the recently organized Matador Community Pasture. The first pasture manager, the Scot George L. Valentine, hired him as a rider in 1924 and the next year was in need of additional help.

Jess Perrin told Valentine, "I don't know of any men, but I got a kid brother at home. He's not very old, but he's used to horses, and a young lad, if he knows what he's doing, can take the place of a pretty good cowboy."

So 16-year-old Peter Perrin signed on with the Matador pasture. He recalls, "About the third day Valentine says to me, `Say, I never asked how old you are.' So I threw out my chest as far as I could and I says, I'll be 17 on the 28th of the month. He took another look at me and says, `Look, you make sure you don't let a horse kick you until you are 17, or there'll be trouble.'"

There would be trouble, because the Matador pasture was not a private operation but a public institution, employees of which were to be of the age of majority. Cowboys here rode not for rugged individualism but for state initiative and cooperative enterprise.

Now, Americans from the Great Plains generally assume that things on the Canadian prairies are pretty much the same as in the United States, and to some extent that's true. Start talking this way in Canadian company, however, and someone will be sure to set you straight, making it clear that the Canadian prairies are not simply a mirror of the American plains.

Community pastures, for instance, are an institution peculiar to western Canada. A community pasture is an area of common grazing that is managed by the government for the benefit of livestock owners. This sounds a lot like American national grasslands, but community pastures are different in at least two ways.

The first is that community pastures are supposed to benefit what is known as mixed farming--that is, the keeping of livestock along with the raising of crops. The ideal patron of a community pasture is a farmer who keeps a few cows. The other difference is that community pastures have never been encumbered with the same ideas of multiple use as have American national grasslands. For these reasons the community pastures are much more popular with livestock owners in Canada than the national grasslands are with ranchers in the United States.

The better-known community pastures were established by Canada's Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration during the 1930s. The province of Saskatchewan, however, actually has more community pastures than does the PFRA. The Matador Community Pasture was the first. It came into being in 1921 when a Scottish-owned American cattle company called the Matador gave up its grazing lease in southwestern Saskatchewan. The province took it over and made it into a community pasture.

Getting back to Peter Perrin--I looked him up in a group care home in Beechy. After we had talked for an hour or so I said, "I have my pickup in the lot here, why don't we take a look around the old Matador?" I'll tell you, old Peter got pretty spry mighty fast.

In fact as we rumbled around the far reaches of the pasture that afternoon, he insisted that since he was riding shotgun, he would get the gates. And he did. I must be getting pretty old myself when I'm not embarrassed to have a 90-year-old guy get the gates for me.

###

Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136

Click here to download a photo of Tom Isern suitable for printing.
(isern.tif - 512KB b&w photo)

Click here to download a photo of Tom Isern suitable for printing.
(isern-h.tif - 426KB b&w photo)