The northern, or highland, region of Brewster County had the county’s highest average elevations, from 3,700 to 6,000 feet above sea level, and its lower temperatures and slightly greater rainfall created open grasslands well suited to cattle grazing year round. Hereford cattle, a breed originating in England, were introduced to Big Bend ranches around 1900 and were valued for thriving on native grasses, fending for themselves, maturing quickly, and producing beef well suited to the land; the Highland Hereford Breeder's Association, formed in 1919, developed a high-quality breeding line, and by 1949 nearly all cattle in the area were Herefords. Ranching life also included violence and theft: on January 28, 1891, cowboy Fine Gilliland shot Civil War veteran Henry Harrison Powe in a dispute over an unbranded bull calf, and after Gilliland was killed in a shootout with Texas Rangers about three days later, Powe’s coworkers branded the calf with the word “MURDER” on one side and the date on the other, giving rise to legends that seeing the “Murder Steer” foretold misadventure or death. Cattle rustling was a serious problem, committed by some Indians or bandits crossing the U.S.-Mexico border but mostly by Anglo renegades, and branding was the only reliable way to establish ownership of an individual animal. Cattle first came into the Big Bend region by overland drives with early settlers, and trail drives later carried herds to market until the railroad enabled both outbound livestock shipments and the arrival of new stock; in the mid-1950s, improved roads and truck transport gradually replaced rail shipment. Barbed wire fences, first installed in Brewster County in 1885, reduced labor by keeping cattle on their ranches, prevented cross-country drives to and from railroad sidings, and helped encourage the later shift to truck transport, while large landholdings and relatively few landowners limited the fence and land-use violence seen elsewhere. Early ranching in the area included the E. L. and A. S. Gage Ranches, the H. L. Kokernot "06" Ranch, the W. W. Turney "02" Ranch, and other pioneer ranchers such as W. J. McIntyre, J. C. Roberts, the Nevill family, and Manuel Musquiz, a political refugee from Mexico who arrived in 1854.