Where's the Beef?

New Year's Day 1886 - a blizzard rocks the upper Midwest that puts an end to beef on the dinner table of America for many, many months.  1000s of cattle die and 100s of cattle companies are wiped out in one of the worst blizzards in recorded history.

Texan cattle fattened for the market in Montana and the Dakotas could not survive the severe winter of 1886-87 and were frozen solid where they stood in the fields.  In a 1887 report, that winter found 80% of all cattle between Canada and the Rio Grande dead and it was the end of the days of the big cattle companies.  It was well into the fall before the cattle markets were back, and then at a diminished capacity.  A Delmonico steak on the East coast pulled a pretty penny for months to come.

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