Following the
Great Western
Trail
If we want our steaks, chili, and smoked briskets, we've got to take cattle to the slaughter house somehow. Today, we let truck
drivers do it, and try not to think about poor Bessie as we bite into a warm, moist cheeseburger.

Cattle didn't always get to market in a ventilated trailer, however. They used to walk there themselves, and their hooves carved
deep scars along trails that stretched for thousands of miles. The Great Western Trail, an offshoot of the Chisholm Trail, was one
of these roads.  

The Great Western Trail, blazed by rancher and trail driver John Lytle, was the last great northern cattle trail. Running from
Kerrville to Dodge City and points northward, it had many functions in its relatively brief lifespan (ca. 1875-1885, give or take a few
years). Trail outfits could take cattle to sell to the Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, and Cheyenne reservations in western Oklahoma
Territory;  cattle could be shipped to the processing plants in Kansas City after boarding in Dodge City; or the longhorn could be
taken all the way to the Dakotas in order to stock the new ranching empires.

Cowboys who took to the trail tended to call it the Chisholm Trail - just about every single trail they rode on in Texas they called the
Chisholm Trail - but the Great Western was actually quite distinctive. The terrain was decidedly more rugged and  parched, and
formidable barriers, such as  the canyons in Texas, the Wichita mountains in Oklahoma Territory, and the Great Basin in Kansas,
made the trail drivers really earn their keep.

This territory was also the last domain of the southern buffalo herds. Histories from Plains Indians tell how the cattle chased  the
buffalo off their traditional lands,

As railroads started to venture into Texas, barbed wire became all the rage on the range, Texas fever caused stricter quarantine
laws, and the taste for  longhorn ebbed, the Great Western Trail succumbed fairly quickly to the wiles of progress. Today, it's a
little known trail save for its importance in the history of Dodge City. It can be followed, though, with a good map and a small guide,
which I've laid out here!
The trail in Texas is easy to follow:

From Brady (the heart of Texas!) follow US
283 all the way to Doans.
Things get tricky in Oklahoma.

1) Follow US 283 north to OK 6.
2) Take OK 6 north to Canute.
3) Take OK 34 north to US 64.
4) Take N 1830 RD north to
Kansas.
Kansas' roads are straight as
arrows.

1) Follow the OK county road all
the way to Ashland.
2) Go west on US 160
3) Take US 283 north to Dodge
City.
The Cimmarron River crossing in Kansas, close to the Oklahoma border. The
landscape is surreal in this part of the world. The colors of the brush and scrub help to
really make the sky "pop" - a real natural sonnet!
Dry conditions near Doan's, at the old
trail crossing along the Red River.
Doan's adobe store near the Red River Crossing. Built in the 1880s,
this little building has seen a lot of activity, including millions of
heads of cattle, visits by Santata, Quanah Parker, and an English
Lord, and hundreds of cowboys.
Western Trail Places!

Texas
Fort Griffin Flat - Now a ghost town, it's
where the bad elements that hung around
military forts lightened the wallets of
cowboys.

Doans - Only the old adobe store remains
from this important river crossing town.

Oklahoma
Fort Sill - Though not on the trail, it's worth
a stop for the many illustrious folks buried
in the post cemetery. Fort Sill is the only
Indian War fort still active.

Fort Supply - Great Western trail drivers
sold cattle to Cheynnes and Arapahos
here. The fort is now inside of a prison!
Fun, fun, fun. Make sure to lock your car.

Kansas
Big Basin - You'll cross over the most
haunting landscape I've ever seen - the
Big Basin. A natural sink hole in the
middle of flat prairie, the basin is wind
swept, treeless, and unbelievably harsh.

Dodge City - Unfortunately, the authentic
parts of Dodge City's western past were
razed to make way for broader streets and
more parking (for tourists - oh, the irony!)  
The old train depot on Front Street houses
the tourist office, with walking tours and
maps.
The deep, icy waters of St. Jacob's well inside the Big Basin has quenched the thirst of man and beast alike
for thousands of years. At times, this would have been the only water source for miles along the trail.
Cattle would bed alongside the Boggy Creek
in Fargo, Oklahoma. Fargo sits along OK 15
south of Fort Supply.
This old hotel in Dodge City has been
replicated in the open air museum/ gift shop
that replaced the actual old town. Urban
renewal hit Dodge City very, very hard.
Dodge City duplication project.
Along the trail, bad guys and girls could sober up and promise to never, ever, ever be bad again inside these little
calabooses: on the left, Fort Griffin Flat's  (TX) calaboose; on the right, Leedey's (Ok) little prison has a toilet inside.
Notice the door to nowhere in this hotel in Dodge City!
Blacksmith shop, Lone Wolf, Oklahoma.
Guardhouse at Fort Supply. Located inside a
former state mental-health-facility
-turned-prison, Fort Supply took in the
remains of Black Kettle's band of Cheynnes
after he was killed by George Custer during a
decisive battle in what is today the Black
Kettle National Grasslands.