Chisholm Trail

The historic Chisholm Trail is the best-known of the great cattle trails and had a great influence on both Texas’ cowboy image and its post-Civil War economic revival. Underscoring the Trail’s significance, historian Wayne Gard claimed the Chisholm Trail “carried what was the greatest migration of domestic animals in world history.” This year is the 150th anniversary of this legendary trail, and this celebration is an opportunity to explore its history, folklore and legacy.

Spanish explorers brought cattle and horses to the Americas in the early 1500s, and they eventually spread them among missions and haciendas in New Spain. Over time, many of the Spanish cattle went loose on the unfenced lands, evolving over the years into what we now know as the Texas longhorn. Before the Civil War, Texans hunted the wild longhorns for their hides, horns and tallow. Cattle were also trailed to markets in Louisiana and even to California. In response to the growing demand for beef, some of the longhorns were taken north along the Shawnee Trail through Dallas to St. Louis and Chicago. However, this route soon became impractical due to resistance from Missouri farmers. They were angered about the ticks carried by the longhorns, which could kill domestic cattle.

After the Civil War, the Texas economy was in shambles, and people across the state were desperate to find avenues toward recovery. The five million unbranded longhorns roaming across the state were a potential asset if they could be taken to the northern markets. A longhorn was worth only $2 in Texas, but in the northern mar-kets, it could bring $16 or more. Joseph G. McCoy, a stockman from Illinois, developed a plan to move the Texas cattle to Chicago packing plants. He encouraged the Kansas Pacific Railway to extend service to Kansas, where he built the necessary cattle pens. The Kansas Pacific Railway published a “Guide Map” showing a route for cattle to be trailed from Texas to the railheads in Kansas. In 1867, McCoy began marketing the economic opportunities of this route to Texas cattlemen.

The Texas cattlemen responded to McCoy’s efforts and started taking longhorn herds to Abilene. By the end of 1867, 35,000 cattle reached the town for sale and rail transportation to Chicago. This was the beginning of the great Chisholm Trail. By 1871 over a million longhorns reached Kansas on this trail. The story of the men and some brave women taking the wild longhorns the 1,000 or more miles up the trail is the foundation of the colorful lore surrounding the Chisholm Trail.

Cattlemen determined that herds of between 2,000 and 2,500 longhorns were reasonable numbers to manage on the trail. A trail boss took charge of each herd and was the leader of the drive. He could be owner of the cattle or might be contracted by the owner or owners to deliver the animal to the railhead to sell to buyers there. The average crew numbered 10 to 12 cowboys, who were called drovers. Many were young men who’d served in the Civil War. It’s been estimated that more than a quarter of the men on the cattle drives were either Mexican or African-American.

The cook was the second most important person on the drive. The food on the long drive was important to keeping the cowboys happy. The cook was also called the coosie, a word derived from cocinero, the Spanish word for cook. Much of cowboy terminology came from the Spanish language, reflecting the influence of the Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) on the many aspects of handing open-range cattle. The cook drove the chuck wagon, which was invented by Charles Goodnight as an effective way to organize food for cattle drives. Goodnight developed another trail, called the Goodnight-Loving Trail, to take cattle to New Mexico and Colorado.

The first step in organizing a trail drive was for the cowboys to gather the unbranded “maverick” cattle and brand them for the owner. If there were cattle from multiple owners, they would also add a “road brand” on all the cattle on the drive. A trail boss took charge of the drive and usually rode ahead of the herd to determine the precise route to take. The drover immediately in front of the herd rode “point.” The drovers along the sides of the herd were “flankers.” The least desirable position was to ride “drag” behind the herd, where there was always considerable dust. The youngest cowboy was usually given the job of “wrangler” to handle the “remuda” of extra horses needed by the drovers, who typically used three horses a day.

Two months or more were required to travel the 1,200 miles up the trail. The trail drive was hard work. Twenty-four hours a day the cowboys had to care for the cattle. At night, cowboys called night hawks” rode quietly around the gathered herd until the trail drive resumed early the next morning. At the beginning of the drive the cattle were run hard in order to wear down the wild longhorn. After this initial phase, the goal was to let the cattle move along slowly at 10 to 12 miles a day in a long procession following the lead steer.

Trail drives involved significant dangers. Weather was always a major concern. Heavy rain created dangerous river crossings. Lightning and thunderstorms could cause stampedes, resulting in loss of cattle and injury or death for drovers. The drovers also faced challenges from rustlers, angry farmers and Indians wanting cattle, which they called wohaw. Despite these problems, as many as 10 million longhorns and a million horses were taken up to Kansas on the Chisholm Trail.

The trail drive era came to an end in the late 1880s due to the westward growth of farms and ranches, the use of barbed-wire fencing, the expansion of rail service and the development of refrigerated rail cars for transporting slaughtered beef. Although the historic trail drives ended, their influence affected many aspects of the Texas economy. The cash from the sale of longhorns revived the Texas economy. It also led to the development of the Texas livestock industry. The cattle drives provided an infusion of cash into the Texas livestock industry and facilitated the dramatic improvement of beef cattle through the introduction of better breeds of beef cattle.