By Ron Wilson, Poet Lariat
Cow Tails and Western Trails
“Texas shipped up the horns and we put the bodies under them.” That was a saying of old-time Kansas cattlemen. It is even quoted on a Kansas Historical Marker at a rest area along Interstate 70.
The quote means this: During the great cattle drive era after the Civil War, Texas shipped
millions of head of rangy, slab-sided longhorn cattle north. In many cases, those cattle were
ultimately fattened on lush Kansas grass before going to market.
That set the stage for the beef industry of today. Now stocker cattle are summer-grazed in the Flint Hills before being finished in feedyards. The cycle repeats itself every summer, but it all began with the cattle drives from Texas.
In 2024, we are celebrating the 150 th anniversary of perhaps the greatest of those cattle trails. Historically, there have always been efforts to move cattle to market. For example, Texas cattle went east to New Orleans and west to California.
As railroads built their way west across the continent, the opportunity developed to move the Texas longhorns north. One of the first major routes was what would become known as the Shawnee Trail. This was used right before and after the Civil War. The trail originated in south Texas and passed through eastern Indian Territory to Baxter Springs, Kansas – the first Kansas Cowtown. The trail went on to points north and east, including Westport in Kansas City; Sedalia, Missouri; and more.
After the Civil War, another route that became known as the Chisholm Trail became a major
cattle thoroughfare. Abilene became the first of the “famous” cowtowns. With a little help from the popular song about the Old Chisholm Trail, the Chisholm became the best known of the cattle trails.
Texas cattleman Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight pursued another route beginning in 1866. That route, which came to bear their names, went west to New Mexico and then north along the front range of the Rocky Mountains.
In Kansas, when concerns grew about the deadly Texas fever being carried by the longhorns, a quarantine line was imposed forbidding their inbound travel to the eastern part of the state. Over time, the quarantine line moved west to central Kansas.
In 1874, Texas cattleman John T. Lytle pioneered a route through Dodge City and north to
Nebraska and beyond. It became known as the Western Trail. Unlike the earlier trails which
were devoted to shipping beef east, the Western Trail served multiple purposes. It carried
breeding stock for northern ranches and supplied much-needed beef to Native American Indian tribes at reservations on the northern plains.
Eventually the quarantine line reached the Colorado border. By 1897, the Western Trail era was over.
Ultimately, the Western Trail would carry more longhorns for a longer distance for more years than any other cattle trail. Some call it the greatest Texas cattle trail of all.
On September 13, 2024, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City will open a new exhibit about the Western Trail. Below is a version of the poem which I will be honored to present at that occasion.
On November 1-2, 2024, the Western Cattle Trail Association and the International Chisholm
Trail Association will celebrate the 150 th anniversary of the Western Trail with a two-day
conference in Dodge City. Representatives of the Shawnee Trail and Goodnight-:Loving Trail
are expected to attend as well. The public is invited. Register at www.westerncattletrailassoc.com .
It will be a great time to celebrate the fact that these historic trails brought longhorns north where many of them could be filled out and finished on Kansas grass. After all, “Texas shipped up the horns and we put the bodies under them.”
Western Trail
Some say it was the greatest Texas cattle trail of all,
As we think of cowboy history and key points that we recall.
The Western Cattle Trail is the name this route would bear,
As it carried cattle north along a livestock thoroughfare.
There was a Texas rancher – John T. Lytle was his name,
Who drove the longhorns north to earn his western fame.
The quarantine line in Kansas was moving to the west,
And ranchers sought another route which farms would not molest.
They came up through Dodge City to Ogallala way,
And blazed the Western Trail as we know it yet today.
The Western Trail was longer than the Chisholm to the east,
And served the northern markets as opportunity increased.
The trail brought breeding stock for the ranchers’ operations,
Plus much needed beef for the Indian reservations.
So we celebrate this transport which historians regale,
Along this route, which we now know as the Western cattle trail.
Happy Trails!
© Copyright 2024
Коментарі