Ranching with Lords & Commons

This book tells the fascinating story of the famous Oxley Ranch. John Craig, Oxley's former manager, self-published the book in 1903, turning out 1000 copies. Craig shows what the cattle business was really like when ranching got underway in the late 1800s in what would eventually become Alberta. He focuses on the struggles to set up the ranch on 100,000 acres first leased in 1881, and the trials and tribulations of working with absentee owners. At the time, he felt there was a need for his observations on the launch of the Oxley Ranch because 'the troubles therein depicted were at one time notorious in Alberta and the State of Montana', and the incidents recorded in his book were 'faithful reproductions of actual facts in the pioneer life of the western cattleman'. This story - and the history it reveals - provides insight into the cattle industry today.