History of the Texas range

History Of the Texas Range Cattle

Arrival of Cattle in the Americas:

A) History of Beef Cattle:

Today, there are numerous breeds of cattle, all over the world, but the fact is that all these breeds have one single ancestor, and that is the 'auroch'. There is a widespread belief that cattle were first tamed and domesticated during the Stone Ages, and that this was done in Europe and in Asia, and, in fact, the remains of domesticated cattle dating back to 6,500 BC have been found in certain places like, for example, Turkey, and in other areas in the Eastern part of the world. In 55 B.C., there is a record in history that Romans happened to spot 'red cattle' in Southwestern England, and even today, the red cattle that were seen at that time, and which are today known as Devon Cattle, are considered to be the oldest beef breeds that exist today. In the year 1623, it is said that two Devon heifers, and a Devon Bull were sent to Plymouth, from England, and, most probably, these were the first 'purebred' cattle that reached the shores of North America, and, in fact, the Texas Longhorn cattle breed is said to have sprung from those ancestors that had been brought into America, by the early explorers of that time. (Lazy Eleven Ranch)

The Texas Longhorn is a breed that is supposed to have survived as primitive cattle, and thereafter occupied the Great Plains after the buffalo herds were all destroyed. A few other breeds that were imported into America at that time are the Angus, the Shorthorn, and the Hereford. (Lazy Eleven Ranch) It is quite evident that the history of beef cattle and beef cattle farming dates back to several thousands of years, and even in Neolithic caves, there are depictions of the cattle that used to live at that time. It must be stated here that it was not until about two hundred years ago that cattle were reared just for the purpose of providing beef; in fact until that time, cattle were primarily used as draught animals to pull carts and ploughs, and were slaughtered only at the fag end of their working lives, and as a result, that beef was of extremely poor quality. (Beef Farming)

B) Emergence of the Texas Longhorn

The rearing of cattle as 'open range livestock' as an industry only worked as long as there was enough grass for the numbers of cattle, and when the ranges became crowded with more and more numbers of cattle, then there arose the need for fencing, and this altered the very nature of cattle raising. Long drives, a general roundup, and a series of other techniques, and also the Longhorn, all became eliminated because of fencing. (Big Bend, Section 5: The emergence of the Hereford)

However, the origins of the entire cattle industry can be said to belong to the state of Texas, where the Texas Longhorn breed of cattle came into prominence. It was in fact the Spanish that brought the first longhorn cattle to America during the year 1493, and it was the descendants of this breed that happened to form the Longhorns of America in later years. The very first Anglo-American settlers of the state of Texas, although they concentrated their efforts in raising cotton crops, happened to possess a few cattle as well, and when these cattle mixed with the already existing cattle in Texas, there was a proliferation of cattle in that area, and in fact, mot of the cattle for the first stocking of the central and the northern plains was supposed to have come from these herds of cattle. (Longhorn Country)

In Texas, the climate conditions and the range conditions were ideal for the raising of cattle, and perhaps this was why Texas became so very good in cattle rearing and farming. In addition, there was a liberal land system in Texas at the time, and this made it easy to acquire land, which everyone did. 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 pastures. Even though some cattle were used to feed the soldiers of the Confederate Troops at that time, for the most part, the cattle were all left alone, and they grew in numbers as well as in size, and according to estimates, there were about five million longhorns at the end of the Civil War. The Longhorns in fact had long legs, and lanky bodies, that seemed to have been designed for speed, and because of the fact that for centuries these cattle had been allowed to run wild, they had developed into creatures that could withstand droughts and blizzards and other adversities with ease. In addition, they did not need much water to survive, and they had strong horizontal horns that could attack when provoked.

A strong sense of smell too added to its capabilities, and this would help a cow in finding and defending her calf, and to protect itself from any enemies. As far as the bulls were concerned, it is often said of the Texas Longhorn, "there was probably no meaner creature in Texas than a Longhorn Bull," and at the slightest provocation, it was capable of turning into a vicious creature that would attack and kill aggressively. Charles Goodnight, a Texas cowman, has said, "Their equal has never been known," about the Longhorns, and although they did in fact harbor a few diseases, they were the most popular creatures in Texas for a long time. But the sad fact is that the factors of cross breeding, culling, and castration served to reduce the numbers of pure Longhorns, and son their numbers started to dwindle drastically, and today, Longhorns are bred and maintained in certain selected state parks in Texas. (Longhorn Country)

II. Cattle Trade

A) Texas, the start of it All:

Cattle ranching have been a very important industry in Texas for many centuries now, and it most probably started as a full fledged industry during the early years of the 1690's, when the Spaniards brought cattle into America. Ranching as such dates back to the 1730's, when cattle were let loose on the San Antonio River, and they were used to feed the missionaries and the soldiers and others in that area. Soon ranching started to shift over to private raisers, like for example, Tomas Sanchez de la Barrera y Garza, Antonio Gil Ibarvo, and Martin De Leon, among others. In fact, it has been stated by researchers that the Texas ranching industry must have started in the southeast Texas-southwestern Louisiana area, from where the herds were generally driven to cattle markets in New Orleans. In fact, the Spanish government is known to have encouraged the growth of the cattle industry, especially along the famous 'Coastal bend', where liberal land grants seemed to have developed into feudal estates in later years, and huge tracts of land were granted to cattle raisers like Tomas Sanchez at Laredo. (Ranching: The Handbook of Texas Online)

When the barriers to trade to Spain were relaxed during the period form 1763 to 1803, the Texas rangers took advantage, and they started to move on to the East in search of a better outlet for their cattle. However, the raids by Indians is known to have driven the Texas rangers form their lands to other settlements for protection, and other American colonists began to crowd at that time into Texas, and when they saw the vast opportunities for cattle rearing and ranching in Texas, where herds of cattle could be reared without much expense or trouble, they began to settle down in those areas, and the men who had come into Texas with no purpose other than to plow and to plant became cattle raisers. Cattle raising remained a large industry all through the years from the republic to early statehood and later, during the Civil War, it was Texas that produced beef for the Confederacy. This then was the starting of it all. (Ranching: The Handbook of Texas Online)

B. The Trails:

1) The Chisolm Trail:

It was on May 30, 1854 that Kansas became an official territory, according to the Congress, and this led to the Texas drovers changing their route, wherein they started to move more towards the West. This new route was almost to the North, out of Texas, and it passed through Fort Gibson, Fort Scott, and finally, through Fort Leavenworth. Why the Chisolm Trail came to be known as the Chisolm Trail was because, many years earlier, Jessee Chisolm happened to follow this particular route when he was taking some Indian cattle from Texas to Fort Scoot, and the trail thereafter became known as the Chisolm Trail. This famous Trail begins at the edge of the Mexican Border, and near the present town of Brownsville, and it is also said that some of the cattle that were driven up to Kansas had actually been taken from some of these Mexican Ranches. (Famous Cattle Trails)

The Trail in fact aided in the collection of herds of cattle from San Antonio, Helena and Texana in the south and Uvalde, and also from Comanche and Fort Worth, from further north. From Fort Worth, the Chisolm Trail goes straight northwards, and crosses the Red River at Red River Station, and when it reaches the Indian Nation Territory, it passes through Rush Springs, Kingfisher and Hennessy on through to Kansas. In fact, what made this particular trail very important was the fact that along the route, there were present, three important cattle terminals, which were Wichita, Abilene, and Newton. Abilene was in fact one of the largest cow towns in Kansas, and it was a mere hamlet of twelve red roofed cabins in the year 1867, which was the year when Joseph Mc Coy, a cattle dealer from Chicago, happened to arrive at Kansas.

Recognizing the potential of the town as a potential cattle center, he started negotiations with Hannibal and St. Joseph RR, for better rates, and started the process of building cattle pens, and then sent circulars to all the Texas drovers that the Chisolm Trail was the best route to be used to drive their cattle north. He promised that there was more grass, more water and more prairies along the trail, as well as less timber and less Indians. Soon, a number of herders started to use this promised trail, and this was how the Chisolm Trail started to gain in popularity among the ranchers of that day. (Famous Cattle Trails)

2. The Shawnee Trail:

In the year 1846, one Edward Piper, happened to drive a herd North of Missouri, and into the state of Ohio, and his purpose was to sell the cattle that he was driving in the spring of 1847. This trail came to be known as, in later years, the Osage Trace, or the Kansas Trail, or the Shawnee Trail. By the time it was the mid-1850's, the trail became extremely popular and it began to be used by numbers of Texas drovers. They would in fact start by crossing the Red River at Red Rock, which is actually near the current town on Preston, in Texas, today, and then move north to boggy Depot, and then on to the northeast across the Arkansas River. They would then drive their cattle through Fort Gibson, and then through Baxter Springs, Kansas and then on to Joplin, Missouri.

It was after the Civil War that the Shawnee Trail became an increasingly popular and came to be known as an established route that extended south through the state of Texas. The Shawnee Trail is in fact one of the oldest known cattle trails, and it remained an important and widely used cattle trail until the year 1879, because of the fact that it would terminate at Baxter Station, which was situated directly across the border, from Indian Nation Territory, and also because it was several miles closer to the Eastern markets. (Famous Cattle Trails)

3. The Western Trail

The Great Western Trail where more than six million Texas Longhorn Cattle would have walked and grazed during the years from 1866 to 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, at Kansas, about 45 miles north of Indian Territory. In 1892, homesteaders began to fence in Oklahoma Territory, and at this time, there was confusion about whether the Great Western Trail was actually the old 'Doan Trail', which in fact it was, or whether it was the 'Old Dodge City Trail', which it was, because of the fact that it ended at Dodge City, and there were some who believed that the Chisolm Trail and the Great Western Trail were one and the same, which it was not. The so-called Doan's Crossing was directly opposite to Doan's Store, and in fact, CE Doan has kept the records of the herds crossing the trail meticulously and extremely well. The trail drivers who crossed the Great Western Trail would have been able to see the Wichita Mountains on one side, whose peak was also known as the Mount Webster, or the Mount Teepee, and drivers would be able to pint out this peak when crossing the North fork of the Red River. (The Great Western Cattle Trail)

4. The Goodnight-Loving Trail:

This trail ran from Young County, Texas, southwest to Horse head Crossing on the Pecos River, to the Pecos, to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and then onwards up to Colorado. It was in early 1886 that Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving happened to drive their first herd of Longhorn cattle up over the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, near the Fort Belknap, through the Middle Concho River, to the Horse head crossing, or the Dead Horse Crossing. After leaving the former mail route where it was, these two drivers would go up to the Pecos, crossing it from time to time, as and when they needed to do so, and when the cattle needed a watering hole or two. However, it was not until the year 1866 that the northern extension of the goodnight-Loving Trail was discovered, by Loving himself, and after this discovery, the trail could run north from Fort Sumner up the Pecos to Las Vegas, and then it would go across the Santa Fe Trail to Raton Pass, from where it would wind around the base of the Rockies via Trinidad and Pueblo to Denver, Colorado. (Good-Night Loving Trail: The Handbook of Texas Online)

However, this was still a roundabout way, and it would waste a lot of time, and this led Goodnight to search for another route, which he discovered eventually in the year 1867, after which the distance was reduced by about fifty to sixty miles to the east. This new route would cross the Gallinas valley and the well-watered plains of northeastern New Mexico near Capulin Mountains, and then move back towards the Raton Pass. Numerous cattle concerns from Texas, New Mexico, as well as from Colorado ended up using the Goodnight-Loving Trail, until the advent of the railroads in the Southwest in the 1880's. (Good-Night Loving Trail: The Handbook of Texas Online)

C. Round up

The 'round up' of the cattle that would have had to be driven along any of the trails was an extremely difficult and time consuming activity in the days of yore, but it was unavoidable, and it had to be done. According to an Article in the Wild West magazine, about Jerree Chisholm's Trail, that led from Texas to Abilene, in Kansas, driving a herd of 'half-wild Longhorns' over that trail was in fact a literal 'Baptism by Fire'. One description says that when the Red River was once in full flood, and its waters were looking more like the waters of the Mississippi River than the small and muddy stream of water that the cowboys had been expecting, one brave man, named Todd, was determined to get his herds of cattle across, no matter what. This man was keenly aware of the dangers of what would happen if his large herd of cattle was to get stuck up in the waters of the Red River near a ford, and what a long wait for the water of the river to go down there would have to be, for him as well as for his cattle, if that were to happen, and with the more than 25,000 heads of cattle standing there in the rolling land, all packed tightly together, would be an inevitable disaster, if there were to be a panic and a subsequent stampede. Anyway, even if that didn't happen, the land would soon be overgrazed. (Hard times along the Chisholm Trail)

Therefore, Todd called one of his hands, Jim Foster, and asked him to drive the lead steers across the water first. However, this caused the steers to swim around in a circle after having reached halfway across, and this caused a jam, and the jam would have to be broken before more cattle at the center of the circle would be pushed under the water, and drowned. What Foster did was that he drove his horse to the middle of the river, climbed on to one of the Longhorns, and walked across the herd, as if 'it was a logjam'. He straddled one of the biggest steers in the herd, and forced it to swim to the far bank, and automatically, the rest of the herd followed that steer. In this way, Jim Foster managed to save Todd's herd of more than 25,000 cattle, most of which would have perished but for the timely round up of the cattle that Jim Foster managed to accomplish.

In fact, after the Civil War, there were many young men just like Jim Foster, who were at loose ends, without a job or an education, and at the same time there was a large number of wild and untamed and unclaimed cattle everywhere, just waiting to be rounded up and claimed, and this is exactly what many cowboys of the time did, Charles Goodnight, and Oliver Loving among them. These two together managed to round up a herd of cranky and wild Longhorns form Texas towards the Colorado mining camps. A typical round up in fact would generally start in the south and the central Texas Brush country, where there were plenty of Longhorns roaming around freely, and would go up one of the numerous cattle trails that had been discovered at that time. The round up as such would last for about seven to ten days, and after the round up was over, the cowboys would typically spend many days cutting out the cattle that had been previously branded by their owners, and then proceed to brand all those young animals that had not been branded as yet. (Hard times along the Chisholm Trail)

D. Life on the Range:

typical image of a cowboy is a man, on horseback, in charge of riding over the entire range, whose job is to see to it that the cattle that he is in charge of do not stray too far away form the limits that would have been assigned to them previously. The cattle ranger's occupation is indeed unique and special, and he is a man who is literally all the time busy with either the rounding up and collection of the cattle, or the supervision of the cattle, seeing that they do not stray or rove too far away form under his watchful eyes. Sometimes, he would be required to herd the cattle together for some purpose, maybe for branding them, or for the selection of beef cattle, after which the selected cattle would be driven down to railroad stations so that they may be shipped away to market. (Old West Legends, the American Cowboy) cattle ranger must be a man who is extremely physically fit, and he must be an efficient and an intelligent worker, who must possess the ability to make quick and snap decisions about the cattle he is in charge of whenever necessary, so that they may remain free from danger. He must also be a man who would be able to endure many physical hardships and be able to handle fatigue, tiredness, and sleeplessness that comes from being in charge of a herd of cattle. He must be a skilled horseman, and must also be skilled in the use of the lariat. The average Texas cowboy was a frontiersman, who would be trained, even when he was a child, to be aware of the dangers form Indians, and would be brought up to be ferocious and warlike in their nature, so that they may do a better job of guarding the cattle that they are in charge of. In addition to the Indians, there would also be bandits from Mexico, who would come well prepared to plunder the herds as well as the homes of the people of Texas, and the ranger would have to be prepared for this eventuality as well. (Old West Legends, the American Cowboy)

E. Cattle Towns:

When Joseph McCoy came up with the brilliant idea of bringing cattlemen as well as the buyers of the cattle out together on the plains, the idea was recognized for its simplicity and for its practicality, and soon, most cattlemen started to adopt this idea. This brought about the origin of 'cattle towns', and Abilene is one such town, which was seen as the very center for the cattle market, and which soon became known for the entire West's 'wild and woolly' towns. (Abilene, History) In the same way, Caldwell was another cattle town of Texas, and it was known as the 'Border Queen', because of the fact that when a cowboy would arrive at Caldwell, they would know that they were safely out of Indian territory, and that they had arrived in Kansas. This was a cattle town with an extremely colorful past, and in fact, Caldwell was one place that had 16 Marshals in a mere 6-year span. (Caldwell, History)

Dodge City is yet another famous cattle town of Texas, and it is the 'pure definition of the West', according to some people. This town is situated along the Santa Fe Trail, and it was originally built, in 1865, in order to offer protection to those freight wagons that were on their way to and from Santa Fe. Dodge Town was also, at one point of time, known as the 'Hide Town', because of the fact that more than hundreds upon thousands of buffalo hides were shipped from this town, by rail car, every year. When Texas cattle started to arrive at Dodge Town, cowboys who accompany the cattle came there too, and soon, Dodge Town became known as the 'Cowboy Capital of the World'. (Dodge City, History) To an average cowboy, the cattle town of Ellsworth was almost like a literal Mecca, and this was because of the fact that money, women, and drink all flowed in that town with equal abandon and the cattle were becoming the dinner for people in the North. Ellsworth is also often fondly referred to as the 'True Old West'. (Ellsworth, History)

The Chisholm Trail gave the name, 'Bloody Newton, the wickedest town in the West' to Newton, another of the famous cattle towns of Texas. In fact, it was the Santa Fe Railway that managed to establish a literal railhead for Texas cattle, and Newton was the cattle town that was in the center of cattle business. The people of Newton are basically known for their hospitality and good manners, and for their cooking skills, and the rugged pioneer spirit is very much alive in the descendants of the early Texas ranchers who still live on in the cattle town of Newton, today. (Newton, History) The cattle town of Wichita was founded near the Chisholm Trail that had been founded by Jessee Chisholm soon after the Civil War. In the year 1873, the railroad reached Wichita, after which this town became the newest railhead for all the Texans who were living in that area. Several Wild West Legends such as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson are known to have walked along the streets of Wichita, during its Wild West days. (Wichita, History)

III. Impacts of the Cattle Trade

A. Native American/Cowboy Relations

In American History, the period that lasted from 1880 to 1910 was one of the very greatest importance and significance for the so-called 'American West', and especially more so because this was also the time when the vast frontier had been 'conquered'. In fact, Native Americans had been forced on to reservation lands. The Frontier at that time was definitely not at all a safe place to live in, and all the settlers who were preparing to settle down in that area had to be prepared at all times against any type of attack form the Native Americans who had been living there until then. There was literal warfare at all times, and there was created, as a direct result, a feeling of distrust and misgivings that would inevitably lead to hostilities on both sides. However, this was not the feeling al the time, because there is evidence that there was flourishing trade between Native Americans and the later settlers, and that this type of trade managed to dispel at least a small part of the hostility between the whites and the Natives. (Buffalo Bill and Native Americans)

1. Comanche Relations:

The Comanche Indians were a tribe of exceptionally skilled horsemen who happened to dominate over the Southern Plains, and who featured prominently in Texas History during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The Comanche's arrived on the Southern Plains not as one single unified group, but rather as small family groups or bands, and by the early years of the eighteenth century, groups of Comanches had started to migrate to Texas and by the middle of the eighteenth century, the tribes had become a formidable force. The Spanish officials who did not possess the military skills that would be needed to oust the Comanche's, decided instead, to attempt to maintain peaceful relations with them, and a peace policy was formed, according to which gifts would be given to these people to promote friendship with them, and military force would not be used unless strictly needed to enforce discipline against unwarranted acts of violence. (Comanche Indians: The Handbook of Texas, Online)

In 1762, a new Spanish Policy was initiated by Fray Jose Calahorra y Saenz negotiated a treaty with the Comanches, according to which war would not be waged any more on missionized Apaches, and this met with widespread success. However, continuing aggression led to the Comanches not being able to keep up their promises, and this finally led to the signing of a Spanish-Comanche Alliance that would in effect exterminate the Apaches. The Comanche chief Povea signed a treaty that would make peace with the Spaniards, but this was of no avail, and Comanche attacks started to increase during the 1780's, and it came to a stage when Spanish officials started to fear that Texas would be lost to them. Thereafter the Spanish-Comanche Treaty of 1785 was signed, and the Comanches honored the Peace Treaty until the end of the century. During the 1960's, the Comanches started to rebuild their torn society together, encouraged as they were by the surge of Indian Nationalism, and started their own tribal government. (Comanche Indians: The Handbook of Texas, Online)

2. Cattle Trails in Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

It was during the 1820's that the Five Civilized Tribes from the South Eastern United States, that is, the Cherokee, the Chock saw, the Chickasaw, the Creek, and the Seminole, happened to be relocated to Indian Territory, over different routes, and the more famous among such routes was the Cherokee 'Trail of Tears', because these people had been forced off their own lands by both state and federal government, and the tribes had to suffer innumerable hardships as a result. The state of Oklahoma, after the Civil War, became a major player in the booming cattle industry of that time, and when Western expansion began to take place, controversies started to arise about the fate of the land. (Oklahoma's History)

The tribes had been forced by the government to give up their land and accept instead certain property allotments, so that expansion could take place unhindered. However, the Boomers objected to the government parting with precious land, and stated that it must not be given to Indians. Therefore, most of the Western parts of the land were opened to settlers, who came form all parts of the world, like for example, from Poland, Germany, and Russia. Even African-Americans, who needed to be settled down, claimed parts of these lands for their own. The Five Tribes that had established successfully their own separate nations would survive until the statehood of Oklahoma in 1907. (Oklahoma's History)

B. Buffalo Herds

1. Impact of Cattle Diseases on Buffalo:

During the 1800's more than hundreds and thousands of buffalo roamed round freely around the Great Plains, and this great beast was almost brought to the brink of extinction by the overzealous hunters of the time. (Biodiversity and Conservation: a Hypertext Book by Peter J. Byrant) The buffalo was in fact a unique symbol of the Plains, and the sad fact is that it was almost not able to survive beyond the nineteenth century. Not only did the settlers of the West kill this animal in great numbers, but it has also died in large numbers because of disease. It is said that in the entire United States of America, just one single herd of buffalo was able to survive the slaughter inflicted on them by the settlers, and every single buffalo that lives today, has been descended from that particular herd that survived. (Introduction: Wolves and Buffaloes)