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| Trail Riders monument, Caldwell Kansas |
| Taming the Wild West while Rescuing the Old South Although Texas and Oklahoma formed the most western boundaries of the Confederacy, their governments and economies were as deeply affected by Union victory as the more traditional Southern states. The federal army left southern rail lines in shambles, and Red River traffic was all but halted by the occupation of Shreveport. Although cotton was still a valuable crop, not much of it could make it to market. Economic Ruin As soldiers began pouring back into Texas and Oklahoma, they found their way of life all but destroyed. Both the planter class and the farmer faced utter economic ruin, since their fields had lain fallow for a long time, and whatever wealth they had accumulated had been deemed worthless as their government crumbled. For the liberated slave, the new freedom came with trepidation: where to go? How to make a living? For Texas and Oklahoma, economic progress came to a standstill in the first years of reconstruction. Something had to be done to restore their self-sufficiency and their dignity. What luck, then, that our states had a considerable advantage that none of the other Southern states had: they could look West, to the frontier, for answers. The West Beckons The Western frontier had been forced back during the four years of fighting. Before the Civil War, white advancement in Texas had reached almost to Abilene and northward towards what would become Wichita Falls. But while soldiers abandoned many of the forts to concentrate on the eastern front, the Comanche were able to regain lost ground. Gainesville, Denton and Fort Worth had become, yet again, frontier outposts. In Oklahoma, the western areas of the Chickasaw Nation and all of Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache lands, including disputed Greer county, remained open, relatively empty expanses. The frontier beckoned with opportunity, but just exactly what kind of opportunity? Joseph McCoy found the answer. A merchant from Illinois, he heard about the Longhorn cattle that roamed untended in the southern reaches of Texas. These cows, with long, curved horns and hardier than most bovine, numbered in the millions, a product of years of free range. Many weren't even branded and because they remained wild they were by nature tough and enduring. The added bonus was that these cattle were cheap and - in some instances - free for the taking. McCoy theorized that the victorious north, hungry for beef, would be the perfect market for the longhorn. He persuaded ranchers in Texas to herd the cattle and drive them to Abilene, Kansas. From Abilene, the cattle could be transported by rail to stations back east, then on to Northern markets. McCoy must have been an excellent salesman, since the ranchers accepted the risky scheme on faith alone. They had no idea if Abilene really existed or if cattle pens really had been built to accommodate the herds. But what did they have to lose? The ranchers signed on. Indian Trail Blazers Cattle drives were not new - in fact, they had been going on in Texas and Oklahoma before the Civil War. The most famous path at that point was the Shawnee Trail, which during the 1850s lead cattle through Dallas, across the Red River at Preston to Colbert's Ferry, then through Boggy Depot to rail heads in Missouri. But farmers in Oklahoma and Missouri bitterly resented the intrusion of thousands of cattle on their lands, and would "welcome" the cowboys with shotguns. When the Civil War came, the Shawnee Trail all but died. During this time, the newly arrived eastern Indians began exploring their new Oklahoma territories. Although the western parts of the Indian Territory were still in Plains Indians hands, the immigrant Native Americans started to blaze trails for settlers to come after them. Most notable of these were two well educated, kind, and generous men: Black Beaver of the Delaware Indians and Jesse B. Chisholm, a Cherokee- Scotsman. Black Beaver was a well known guide, forging the California Trail and living to see it become one of the main western immigration routes. A prosperous farmer, he gave up all of his lands to the Confederacy to guide Union soldiers through Oklahoma to Leavensworth, Kansas. The route that he took compromised the northern edge of what would become the Chisholm Trail. Jesse Chisholm never owned cattle - he was a trader who worked hard at achieving a reputation of being honest and fair. An educated man, he could speak several Indian languages, a talent that made him a peace negotiator and a sought-after guide. Chisholm laid out several trails, especially one that would open up southwestern Oklahoma to Indian tribes and trade. After his death, this trail was named after him. At first, the Chisholm Trail accommodated wagon trains, pioneers, and Indian tribes moving to Oklahoma Territory. However, McCoy saw its potential as a cattle road. Ranchers carved a network of smaller trails across Texas to drive the cattle to Fort Worth. The cattle would then be driven to the crossing at Red River Station. After crossing the river, the drive would go in almost a straight path through Chickasaw, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Cherokee lands into Kansas, where they'd meet the trains bound for Northern and Eastern markets in Abilene. Life on the Trail The men on the trail worked long hours, traveling the 1,200 mile route at about 10-12 miles per day. Charles Goodnight explained in his memoirs that the best cattle drivers forged the route according to the distance between watering holes. The herd, which ideally numbered about 2,500-3,000 head, followed the trail in a wide berth, sometimes up to a mile wide. Traveling during the spring, summer, and fall, each season brought with it its own perils. The cowboys had to contend with tornados, hail, flash floods and lightning. A freak Spring blizzard in 1874 at Hell Roaring Creek, Indian Territory, killed several animals. Cattle, men, and horses were lost in quicksand along the Red River, where banks could become even more treacherous after a rain storm. Even the smaller creeks became swirling death traps after flash floods. More often than not, the real enemy of the men on the trail were other men, like cattle rustlers and Kansas farmers. Texas Rangers could help the drivers south of the Red River, but in Indian Territory the company had to rely on sporadic protection from the soldiers stationed at the forts. The Kiowa and Comanche demanded payment for the use of their lands - usually in the form of healthy steer. Sometimes, young Indian men would cause stampedes in order to take the outfit's horses. At times, the men had to fight each other, too. In Cooke County, 1873, a cook beheaded four cowhands at the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. Shootouts, though not too common, occurred between coworkers. This is the reason why alcohol was forbidden on the trail. On the Job Like with any other job, a strict hierarchy ruled the outfit. The boss was always an experienced trail driver who had proven himself patient, quick witted, and no-nonsense. He usually rode ahead of the herd, spotting for danger, grazing land, and water. Second in line of command was the cook, who no one dared to make upset because the food might end up tasting a little funny. The cook would either be a cowboy who had learned the trade on previous drives or, in a few cases, a woman out looking for adventure. The menu consisted of biscuits- biscuits with beans, biscuits with bacon, biscuits with steak. During the long journey, the company's diets could be greatly supplemented by game and wild berries. Sometimes, a troublesome cow was slaughtered, and the cowhands could look forward to steak and roast. The cowhands numbered from 12 to 18 men. They practically lived on their horses. They would station themselves at every corner of the herd and gently nudge the cows to the north. Their strategy was to make the cows feel as if they walked voluntarily, which made the drive much easier to manage. At night, the guards on duty would softly sing their cowboy songs, which calmed the herd down. The wrangler made up the rear of the brigade. Usually a younger, less experienced cowhand, his job was to take care of the extra horses, help the cook, and take good natured abuse from the cowhands. Pay Day! If there's one thing cowboys know how to do, that's to live it up. The prospect of walking cattle through miles of uncertain terrain for months at a time gave them reason to carouse before setting off on the trail. Fort Worth, the starting point of the main trail, offered booze, gambling, and other dubious entertainment - as well as supplies. By the end of the trail, they were more than ready to tie one on again - this time in Abilene. The boss would sell the cattle for great profit - usually about $20 a head - pay the men, and after the cowhands sold their surplus horses, they were free to spend. They'd return to Texas broke but ready for another drive. The Trail Ends The Chisholm Trail did not last long. When the rail road pushed further west, other trails opened up to meet stations in less populated areas. Then, in the 1880s, Texas finally got its own track - the Katy - which curtailed cattle drives even further. But barbed wire really killed the trails. When first introduced, it served to keep cattle from grazing in cultivated fields. Then ranchers began using it to separate the less desirous longhorn - with its tough, stringy meat - from the fattier, more tender mixed breeds. Northerners quickly developed a taste for the softer meat, which pushed the longhorn off the market. The cattle drives trickled to a halt. However, the Chisholm Trail, and those trails that came before and after it, did much more than just bring surplus beef to market. Not only did they bring Texas back from economic ruin, but they also helped forge western expansion. Prior to the Chisholm Trail, many Americans believed that the West was too wild to settle properly, with bands of Plains Indians lurking everywhere and lands too scrappy to cultivate. The Chisholm Trail proved that people could live well on the Plains. It also meant the end of a way of life for the western Indians and the cowboy. Now, we can only share their history in museums, ghost towns, and on historical markers. |
| Marker on the original Chisholm Trail. These heritage markers, situated on many sites along the trail, were the brain child of Bob Klemme, Enid, Oklahoma. |
| Other States were Carved and Born Texas grew from Hide and Horn. Berta Hart Nance |
| On the trail in Oklahoma |
| Jesse Chisholm, translator, trader, and trail blazer |
| Learn the Language of a Cowhand A little lesson in cowboy vocabulary. beeve: mature steer mixed breed: cows that are not longhorns maverick: unbranded longhorns roaming the south of Texas prairie coal: cow/ buffalo chips used for fire fuel chuck wagon: where the cook worked and tools were stashed son-of-a-gun stew: stew made up of the soft tissues of a cow slaughtered on the trail. Since these pieces of meat couldn't be preserved, the cowboys ate this stew for the first few days. Thereafter, they could have steaks. Pecos strawberries: beans lick: molasses mill: cluster of cows. When formed in a river, it could lead to panic. Milling was used by the cowhands as a form of curtailing stampedes, although it wasn't the favorite solution, since it caused the cows to loose weight. stampede: cattle panic, making them run amok remuda: the surplus horses that the wrangler would look after. |
| To explore some Chisholm Trail traveling history, click here! To follow the Chisholm Trail on your own road trip, click here for my travel guide (coming soon)! |
| Know Your History! Cattle are not kind to their environment - the acreage of land required to grow their feed precludes many other profitable crops. So why is beef such a preferred meat for Americans? And why did Americans slaughter the buffalo to extinction, just to introduce cattle? |
| Check out the comprehensive site, On the Chisholm Trail by Glenn Seeber, to explore more about this fabled piece of the Old West! |
| Trail bosses would pay the toll to cross the Waco suspension bridge, but the cowboys would ford the Brazos river below with their cattle. |
| The Tarrant County Courthouse sits right in the middle of the Chisholm Trail |
The Chisholm
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