History of Texas Range Cattle and the American Cattle Trade

Origins of Beef Cattle and the Texas Longhorn

Today there are numerous breeds of cattle all over the world, but all of these breeds share one single ancestor: the auroch. There is a widespread belief that cattle were first tamed and domesticated during the Stone Age, in Europe and in Asia. Remains of domesticated cattle dating back to 6,500 BC have been found in places such as Turkey and other areas of the Eastern world. In 55 BC, Romans recorded spotting "red cattle" in southwestern England, and even today those red cattle — now known as Devon Cattle — are considered to be the oldest beef breed still in existence. In the year 1623, two Devon heifers and a Devon bull were sent from England to Plymouth, and these were most probably the first purebred cattle to reach the shores of North America. The Texas Longhorn cattle breed is said to have sprung from those ancestors brought into America by the early explorers of that era.

The Texas Longhorn is a breed that survived as primitive cattle and thereafter occupied the Great Plains after the buffalo herds were destroyed. A few other breeds imported into America at that time include the Angus, the Shorthorn, and the Hereford. The history of beef cattle and beef cattle farming dates back several thousands of years; even in Neolithic caves there are depictions of cattle that lived in those times. It is worth noting that it was not until about two hundred years ago that cattle were reared specifically to provide beef. Prior to that, cattle were primarily used as draught animals to pull carts and ploughs, and were slaughtered only at the very end of their working lives. As a result, the beef produced was of extremely poor quality.

The rearing of cattle as open-range livestock functioned as an industry only as long as there was sufficient grass for the numbers of cattle involved. When the ranges became crowded with increasing numbers of cattle, the need for fencing arose, and this altered the very nature of cattle raising. Long drives, general roundups, a series of other techniques, and the Longhorn itself were all gradually eliminated as a consequence of fencing.

The origins of the entire cattle industry can be traced to the state of Texas, where the Texas Longhorn breed came to prominence. It was the Spanish who brought the first Longhorn cattle to America in 1493, and it was the descendants of this breed that formed the Longhorns of America in later years. The very first Anglo-American settlers of Texas, although they concentrated their efforts on raising cotton crops, also possessed a few cattle. When these cattle mixed with the cattle already present in Texas, there was a proliferation of cattle in that area, and in fact most of the cattle used for the first stocking of the central and northern plains are thought to have come from these herds.

In Texas, both climate and range conditions were ideal for raising cattle, and perhaps this is why Texas became so successful in cattle rearing and farming. In addition, there was a liberal land system in Texas at the time, which made it easy to acquire land. Soon, small acreage owners began to let their cattle graze on unoccupied lands, and others who had invested most of their money in cattle came to depend on the open ranges for pasture. Even though some cattle were used to feed the soldiers of the Confederate troops during the Civil War, for the most part the cattle were left alone, and they grew in numbers as well as in size. According to estimates, there were about five million Longhorns at the end of the Civil War.

The Cattle Trade and Texas Ranching

The Longhorns had long legs and lanky bodies that seemed designed for speed. Because these cattle had been allowed to run wild for centuries, they had developed into creatures that could withstand droughts, blizzards, and other adversities with ease. They required very little water to survive and possessed strong horizontal horns capable of inflicting serious harm when provoked. A keen sense of smell added further to their capabilities, helping a cow find and defend her calf and protect herself from enemies. As for the bulls, it was often said that "there was probably no meaner creature in Texas than a Longhorn Bull," and at the slightest provocation it could turn into a vicious animal that would attack and kill aggressively. Texas cowman Charles Goodnight said of the Longhorns, "Their equal has never been known." Although they harbored certain diseases, they were the most prominent creatures in Texas for a long time. Sadly, cross-breeding, culling, and castration served to drastically reduce the numbers of pure Longhorns, and today Longhorns are bred and maintained only in certain selected state parks in Texas.

Cattle ranching has been a very important industry in Texas for many centuries, most probably developing into a full-fledged industry during the early years of the 1690s, when the Spaniards brought cattle into America. Ranching as such dates back to the 1730s, when cattle were let loose along the San Antonio River to feed missionaries, soldiers, and others in that area. Ranching soon shifted to private raisers such as Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza, Antonio Gil Ibarvo, and Martín De León, among others. Researchers have stated that the Texas ranching industry likely started in the southeast Texas–southwestern Louisiana area, from where herds were generally driven to cattle markets in New Orleans.

The Spanish government is known to have encouraged the growth of the cattle industry, especially along the famous Coastal Bend, where liberal land grants appeared to develop into feudal estates in later years, and huge tracts of land were granted to cattle raisers such as Tomás Sánchez at Laredo. When barriers to trade with Spain were relaxed during the period from 1763 to 1803, Texas ranchers took advantage and began moving east in search of better outlets for their cattle. However, Indian raids drove many Texas ranchers from their lands to other settlements for protection. American colonists began crowding into Texas, and when they saw the vast opportunities for cattle rearing and ranching — where herds could be raised with relatively little expense or trouble — they began to settle in those areas. Men who had come to Texas with no purpose other than to plow and plant became cattle raisers. Cattle raising remained a large industry throughout the republic period, into early statehood, and during the Civil War, when Texas produced beef for the Confederacy.

Major Cattle Trails

On May 30, 1854, Kansas became an official territory by act of Congress, and this led Texas drovers to change their route, moving further west. This new route ran almost due north out of Texas, passing through Fort Gibson, Fort Scott, and finally Fort Leavenworth. The trail came to be called the Chisholm Trail because many years earlier, Jesse Chisholm had followed this particular route when he was taking some Indian cattle from Texas to Fort Scott, and the trail thereafter bore his name. The famous trail begins near the Mexican border, close to the present-day town of Brownsville. Some of the cattle driven north to Kansas had in fact been taken from Mexican ranches along the way.

The trail aided in collecting herds from San Antonio, Helena, and Texana in the south, and from Uvalde, Comanche, and Fort Worth further north. From Fort Worth, the Chisholm Trail goes straight northward, crossing the Red River at Red River Station, and when it reaches Indian Territory it passes through Rush Springs, Kingfisher, and Hennessy on through to Kansas. What made this particular trail especially important was the presence along the route of three major cattle terminals: Wichita, Abilene, and Newton. Abilene was one of the largest cow towns in Kansas — a mere hamlet of twelve red-roofed cabins in 1867, when Joseph McCoy, a cattle dealer from Chicago, arrived in Kansas. Recognizing the town's potential as a cattle center, McCoy began negotiations with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad for better rates, started building cattle pens, and sent circulars to all Texas drovers promoting the Chisholm Trail as the best route north. He promised more grass, more water, more prairies, less timber, and fewer Indians along the way. A growing number of herders began using the trail, and this is how the Chisholm Trail gained popularity among ranchers of that era.

In 1846, one Edward Piper drove a herd northward through Missouri and into Ohio with the intention of selling the cattle in the spring of 1847. This route came to be known in later years as the Osage Trace, the Kansas Trail, or the Shawnee Trail. By the mid-1850s the trail had become extremely popular and was used by large numbers of Texas drovers. They would begin by crossing the Red River at Red Rock, near the present-day town of Preston in Texas, then move north to Boggy Depot, and then northeast across the Arkansas River. From there they would drive their cattle through Fort Gibson, then through Baxter Springs, Kansas, and on to Joplin, Missouri.

After the Civil War the Shawnee Trail became an increasingly popular and well-established route extending south through the state of Texas. It is one of the oldest known cattle trails and remained a widely used route until 1879, in part because it terminated at Baxter Station, which was situated directly across the border from Indian Territory, and was also several miles closer to Eastern markets.

The Great Western Trail, over which more than six million Texas Longhorn cattle walked and grazed between 1866 and 1885, is located between Bandera in Texas — northwest of San Antonio — and about 450 miles south of the Red River. It started at Bandera and ended in Dodge City, Kansas, about 45 miles north of Indian Territory. In 1892, homesteaders began fencing in Oklahoma Territory, and at that time there was confusion about whether the Great Western Trail was actually the old "Doan Trail" — which it was — or the "Old Dodge City Trail" — which it also was, because it ended at Dodge City. Some even believed the Chisholm Trail and the Great Western Trail were one and the same, which they were not. The so-called Doan's Crossing was located directly opposite Doan's Store, and C. E. Doan kept meticulous records of the herds crossing the trail. Trail drivers crossing the Great Western Trail would have been able to see the Wichita Mountains on one side, whose peak was also known as Mount Webster or Mount Teepee, a landmark visible when crossing the North Fork of the Red River.

This trail ran from Young County, Texas, southwest to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River, then up the Pecos to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and onward to Colorado. In early 1866, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving drove their first herd of Longhorn cattle along the Butterfield Overland Mail Route near Fort Belknap, through the Middle Concho River, to Horsehead Crossing — also known as Dead Horse Crossing. Leaving the former mail route behind, these two drivers would proceed up the Pecos, crossing it periodically as needed, especially wherever the cattle required water. However, it was not until 1866 that the northern extension of the Goodnight-Loving Trail was discovered by Loving himself. After this discovery, the trail could run north from Fort Sumner up the Pecos to Las Vegas, then across the Santa Fe Trail to Raton Pass, from where it wound around the base of the Rockies via Trinidad and Pueblo to Denver, Colorado.

This route was still roundabout, however, and wasted considerable time, which led Goodnight to search for an alternative. He discovered one in 1867, reducing the distance by about fifty to sixty miles to the east. This new route crossed the Gallinas Valley and the well-watered plains of northeastern New Mexico near the Capulin Mountains, then moved back toward Raton Pass. Numerous cattle operations from Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado used the Goodnight-Loving Trail until the arrival of the railroads in the Southwest in the 1880s.