Records of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association

Collection

Identifier: ACCA

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Records of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association consists of materials dated 1872 to 2012, with the bulk falling from 1950 to 1990. Materials include meeting minutes of the board of directors and of the standing committees; historical documents; correspondence; papers related to conventions, conferences, and other events; news releases, clippings, and scrapbooks; publications, photographic materials, audio and videotapes; and artifacts. With the exception of a few historical documents, most of the records date from the early 1950s, after the name of the organization was changed to its current form and the CCA's policies and structure were reorganized. Minutes and supporting documents of the board of directors and standing committees are well-represented and make up over a third of the collection.

Dates

Creation: 1872-2012
Creation: Majority of material found in 1953-1990

Creator

Colorado Cattlemen's Association (Organization)

Restrictions on Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection. However, it is stored off-site, so advance notice is required for use.

Restrictions on Use

Not all of the material in the collection is in the public domain. Researchers are responsible for addressing copyright issues.

History

Collaborating with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Colorado Beef Council as well as county and local affiliates, the Colorado Cattlemen's Association (CCA) works with state and national legislators, media representatives, and consumers to protect and promote the Colorado cattle industry. In 1867, a group of Colorado Territory cattlemen gathered in Denver to create the Colorado Stock Growers Association for the purpose of alleviating problems with rustling. After several name changes and reorganizations, by 1949 the association was known as the Colorado Cattlemen's Association.

Recognized as the nation's oldest state cattlemen's organization, the CCA and its local, county, and regional affiliate associations work to determine policy, programs, and legislation affecting agriculture and beef production. In 1949, under the leadership of David G. Rice, the CCA began to stabilize the organization with an increase in paid membership. Ten years after earning a degree in animal husbandry at Colorado's agricultural college in 1939, Rice joined the CCA as the association's executive secretary. His efforts led to a significant increase in membership and agency networking. In the fall of 1950, the executive committee coordinated a meeting of all presidents from local associations to reorganize the CCA's policies and structure. This meeting set in motion the formation of active standing committees.

Conducting business meetings at each annual convention, the standing committees represent member interests including transportation, water and grazing rights, taxes, branding and registration, livestock health, marketing, promotion, research, and public relations. Affiliated organizations formed at a later date include the Junior Colorado Cattlemen's Association and Colorado Cowbelles. The CCA remains devoted to promoting the interests of Colorado's beef industry, ensuring quality control and fair pricing for the beef industry, and protecting Colorado's land, water, and forage resources.

Additional information can be found on the Colorado Cattlemen's Association web page at http://www.coloradocattle.org, and in two books published in 1967 to commemorate the organization's centennial: Century in the Saddle: The 100 Year Story of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association, by Richard Goff and Robert McCaffree, and The Co-Operative Century, edited by Tom Swearingen.

Extent

162 linear feet, plus 9 oversize folders (127 records center cartons)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Arrangement

For most series, original groupings of materials were retained. To aid in more efficient research, the Standing Committees series (which had been filed chronologically in nearly a hundred different boxes) was divided into subseries by committee, and then arranged chronologically within each subseries.

The collection consists of 15 series in 127 boxes:

Series 1: Board of Control/Board of Directors, 1948-2000

Series 2: Standing Committees, 1944-1993 and undated

Subseries 2.1: Standing Committee Chairs, 1950-1981

Subseries 2.2: Agricultural Labor, 1968-1988

Subseries 2.3: ANCA-CCA, 1952-1981

Subseries 2.4: Beef Promotion, 1944-1988 and undated

Subseries 2.5: Brand and Theft, 1950-1990 and undated

Subseries 2.6: Budget, 1969-1980

Subseries 2.7: Cattle Guard, 1951-1980

Subseries 2.8: Cattle Improvement, 1951-1985 and undated

Subseries 2.9: Centennial, 1961-1968 and undated

Subseries 2.10: Environmental, 1972-1989

Subseries 2.11: Executive Advisory, 1951-1991

Subseries 2.12: Federal Lands, 1948-1989 and undated

Subseries 2.13: Feeder, 1951-1955

Subseries 2.14: Finance, 1955-1989

Subseries 2.15: Game and Fish, 1947-1989

Subseries 2.16: Legislative, 1952-1981

Subseries 2.17: Livestock Sanitation, 1947-1989

Subseries 2.18: Marketing, 1950-1989 and undated

Subseries 2.19: Membership, 1952-1989 and undated

Subseries 2.20: Public Relations, 1952-1993

Subseries 2.21: Research, 1950-1989

Subseries 2.22: State Lands, 1950-1991 and undated

Subseries 2.23: Tax, 1946-1989

Subseries 2.24: Transportation, 1952-1989

Subseries 2.25: Water, 1965-1985

Series 3: Historical and governance documents, 1920-1987 and undated

Series 4: Related organizations, 1903-1992 and undated

Subseries 4.1: National and state organizations, 1954-1970

Subseries 4.2: County and local affiliates, 1903-1992 and undated

Subseries 4.3: Cowbelles, 1951-1979 and undated

Subseries 4.4: Junior Colorado Cattlemen's Association, 1953-1960 and undated

Series 5: Correspondence, 1942-2003 and undated

Subseries 5.1: Chronological correspondence, 1959-2003

Subseries 5.2: Subject files, 1942-2003 and undated

Series 6: Conventions, 1949-2005

Series 7: Conferences, meetings, and events, 1950-2007

Series 8: Press releases and communication files, 1962-1999

Series 9: Financial documents, 1961-1992

Series 10: Clippings and scrapbooks, 1948-1976 and undated

Series 11: Printed material, 1947-2009

Series 12: Photographic materials, 1872-2009

Subseries 12.1: Prints, 1870-2009 and undated

Subseries 12.2: Slides, 1963-1989 and undated

Subseries 12.3: Motion picture film, 16mm, c.1971

Subseries 12.4: Microfilm, 1949-1979 and undated

Series 13: Audio and video tapes, 1975-1993 and undated

Series 14: Artifacts, 1954-1967 and undated

Series 15: Accruals, 1997-2012

Acquisition

Five boxes of the Records of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association, consisting mostly of the Cattleguard publication, were donated to the Colorado Agricultural Archive in 1981. The Colorado Agricultural Archive became part of the Colorado State University Libraries in 2004. The bulk of the collection was donated to the Colorado State University Libraries by Terry Fankhauser, Executive Vice President of the CCA, in 2007. Additional materials were donated in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Related Collections

Other Agricultural and Natural Resources Archive collections containing materials related to the cattle industry are the Records of the Gilpin-Jefferson County Livestock Association (a county affiliate of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association), the Records of the Colorado Cattle Feeders Association, the Records of Colorado Cooperative Extension, and the Records of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Records of the organization before its 1949 name change to the Colorado Cattlemen's Association are preserved in the Stephen H. Hart Library of History Colorado in Denver, under the name of the Colorado Stock Growers Association.

Processing

A preliminary inventory was completed in 2008. A few boxes found to have dried mold or water damage were separated for preservation work, and photographs were enclosed in archival sleeves within acid-free folders and boxes. The meeting minutes of the governing board and standing committees and the historical and governance documents series received full processing, including re-housing in acid-free folders and boxes and removal of metal paper clips and other fasteners. Minutes that were originally bound together in large binders according to fiscal year were kept together as a group, resulting in some overlapping years in the folder inventory.

Series other than meeting minutes and historical and governance documents received minimal processing, and were placed in new folders only when the old folders were damaged. These records were sorted into the correct series and arranged alphabetically or chronologically. The publications and photographic materials series were placed in smaller boxes to support the materials and to keep each box to a more manageable weight and size. Mold-damaged documents that duplicated other materials in the collection were discarded, and other duplicates beyond two copies were also removed. Non-duplicate materials containing mold will be cleaned and housed separately from the rest of the collection.