Meat in the Middle: The Borderlands Histories of Illinois Beef, 1835–1900

For U.S. historians, the word “borderlands” typically evokes the areas close to the Mexican and Canadian borders.  But how to bound these areas?  While border crossings may be particularly noticeable near internationally recognized dividing lines, where do “borderlands” end?  Could they be said to extend across the entire country?  Can heartlands also be seen as borderlands?  This paper seeks to broaden the geographies of what we consider to be borderlands by focusing on central Illinois.  Taking the commercial enterprise of cattle production in Champaign County as its topic, it argues that long before NAFTA, in its heyday as a beef state, Illinois had important connections to Canada, Indian Territory, and Mexico centered on meat.  Its location in the middle of overlapping borderlands helped it link Canadian livestock breeders to Cherokee and Mexican ranchers.  But not all borderlands are equal.  Whereas farmers in Champaign recognized their many ties with Canada – extending beyond breeding circuits to labor migrations, railway routes, and farmers’ alliances --  they tended to overlook their ties to Indian Territory and Mexico, often labeling Cherokee and Mexican cattle as “Texas” beeves.  In contrast to accounts that domesticated Canada, depicting it as more familial than foreign, farmers’ descriptions of Indian Territory and Mexico emphasized the alien and inferior blood to be found there – as evidenced by the livestock sent to Illinois for fattening.  If Canadian stock evoked purebred shorthorns with illustrious British pedigrees, Indian and Mexican stock brought to mind rangy, disease-ridden animals that would greatly benefit from the more selective breeding opportunities offered by northern farmers.