The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968 Page: 3
686 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Impact of the Cattle Trails
from both sections are far different and better than they were six
years ago."
To the trails-end towns in Kansas, the movement of cattle from
Texas brought booming expansion. Some of this growth was lost after
the cattle quit coming, but much of it continued as the towns became
markets for the farmers who were pushing west with their plows and
barbed-wire fences.
For the whole central and northern sections of the Great Plains the
trail driving helped to expand cattle ranching. Not all the herds taken
north were made up of steers to be fattened for market. There were
many mixed herds, including cows and calves. The mixed herds were
used to stock new spreads not only in Kansas but in Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas.
This outcome of the trail drives was especially apparent in Wyoming.
The editor of the Cheyenne Leader observed that the season of 1871,
the peak year of Texas cattle trailing, was "a memorable one in the
stock business of the plains. Its success was doubted by many
newcomers, but the year has closed with their unlimited confidence
in the complete practicality and profits of stock growing and winter
grazing. The number of cattle is double, if not four times larger than
in 1869."
In Wyoming and neighbor states the trailing brought not only
cattle to stock the plains and the mountain valleys but ponies for use
in tending the northern herds. Some of the Texas cowhands who had
ridden north with the herds stayed on in Wyoming. Mastery of the
arts of roping and branding enabled them to obtain high wages. Some
of the transplanted Texans settled on homesteads and began acquiring
herds of their own.
To the east, especially in Illinois, the deluge of trail cattle from
Texas enlarged the business of feeding cattle to fatten them for
slaughter. In the case of the tough Longhorns walked north in the
early years of the trailing, this feeding was especially important in
making the Texas beef acceptable to housewives. Gradually this
handicap was overcome by the feeding and by the upgrading of the
Texas herds, so that Texas beef no longer had to be sold at a discount.
The trailing, along with the westward spread of population, gave
rise to the growth of Chicago and Kansas City as centers for meat
1Joseph G. McCoy, Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest
(Kansas City, 1874), 56.
2Cheyenne Leader, April 11, 1872.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 71, July 1967 - April, 1968, periodical, 1968; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117145/m1/21/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.