OklahomaHorses Magazine March 2022

March/April 2022 • OklahomaHorses 13 entering the state, forcing herds to move through eastern Kansas. Eventually, Kansas also enacted quarantine laws, pushing the cattle herds farther west. The Civil War quickly brought a halt to the movement of cattle out of Texas. But once the war ended, the best cattle markets were located in the East, so herds again made their way north along the Shawnee Trail. Texans moved their herds across the prairie to railroad lines in Missouri and later Kansas to get their beef to market to supply the growing demand. By 1866, about 250,000 head of cattle went north in a single year. The Shawnee Trail’s days were numbered, however. In early 1867, six states enacted laws against driving Texas cattle across their state lines. Texas cattle- men looked for a solution while a young entrepreneur named Joseph McCoy devised a plan. The ChisholmTrail and New Cattle Towns Joseph McCoy saw an opportunity. He invested in cattle pens and loading chutes and worked with the Kansas Pacific Rail- way to lay a siding line in Abilene, Kansas. He marketed the new rail destination to Texas ranchers and cattle buyers. Cattle herds followed the old Shawnee Trail north to Waco and then to the Red River. Once in Indian Territory, the drovers followed a trail established by Cherokee trader Jesse Chisholm. The route took them north from near Ringgold past Fleetwood Store, Blue Grove, Reid Store, Monument Hill, Duncan Store, Cook Brothers Store, and north to Silver City, where the trail split. The western route curved toward Fort Reno and Kingfisher Station. The eastern route went west of Mustang through Yukon, west of Piedmont, and crossed the Cimarron River before the two trails merged near Dover Station. This new trail quickly gained in popular- ity. Only 35,000 head followed the “cattle trail” or “Abilene Trail” north in 1867. But the numbers multiplied, and by 1871, about 600,000 head of cattle had made it to market. By 1870, the trail was called the Chisholm Trail, and herds from a few hundred to more than 10,000 followed the path north. As the population in Kansas grew, the terminus moved farther west to new cattle towns, including Ellsworth, Junction City, Newton, Wichita, and Caldwell. Caldwell was the last of the great Chisholm Trail cow towns. It is estimated that about five million head of cattle made their way north along this famous trail before it closed in the 1880s. Ranchers began to fence in the open prairie across the Cherokee Outlet Crews in Texas round up cattle before beginning their arduous journey north through Indian Territory on cattle trails.