Chisholm Trail

The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the late 19th century to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The trail stretched from South Texas across the Red River, and on to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway in Abilene, Kansas, where the cattle would be sold and shipped eastward.

The trail is named for Jesse Chisholm who had built several trading posts in what is now western Oklahoma before the American Civil War. He died in 1868, too soon to ever drive cattle on the trail.

Business aspects

By 1853, Texas cattle were being driven into Missouri, where local farmers began blocking herds and turning them back because the Texas longhorns carried ticks that caused diseases in other types of cattle. Violence, vigilante groups, and cattle rustling caused further problems for the drivers. By 1859, the driving of cattle was outlawed in many Missouri jurisdictions. By the end of the Civil War, most cattle were being moved up the western branch of trail at Red River Station in Montague County, Texas.

In 1866, cattle in Texas were worth only $4 per head, compared to over $40 per head in the North and East, because lack of market access during the American Civil War had led to increasing number of cattle in Texas.

In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards in Abilene, Kansas. He encouraged Texas cattlemen to drive their herds to his stockyards. The stockyards shipped 35,000 head that year and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, Kansas.

That same year, O. W. Wheeler answered McCoy's call, and he along with partners used the Chisholm Trail to bring a herd of 2,400 steers from Texas to Abilene. This herd was the first of an estimated 5,000,000 head of Texas cattle to reach Kansas over the Chisholm Trail.^[1]

The importance of cattle drives began to diminish in 1887 with the arrival of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in Texas.

Route

Today, most historians consider the Chisholm Trail to have started at the Rio Grande in Texas or at San Antonio, Texas. From 1867 to 1871, the trail ended in Abilene, Kansas. Later, Newton, Kansas, and Wichita, Kansas, each served as the end of the trail. From 1883 to 1887, the end of the trail was Caldwell, Kansas. Ellsworth, Kansas is also considered a major influence of the trail.

The Chisholm Trail Crossing through modern-day Duncan, Oklahoma's US-81

In Texas, there were hundreds of feeder trails heading north to one of the main cattle trails. In the early 1840s, most cattle were driven up the Shawnee Trail. The Chisholm Trail was previously used by Indian hunting and raiding parties; it went north from Austin through Waco and Fort Worth. The trail crossed into Indian Territory (present-day west-central Oklahoma) near Red River Station (in present-day Montague County, Texas) and entered Kansas near Caldwell. Through Oklahoma, the Chisholm Trail generally followed the route of US Highway 81 through present-day towns of El Reno and Enid.[1]

Challenges

On the long trips — up to two months — the cattlemen would face many difficulties. They had to cross major rivers like the Arkansas and the Red, and innumerable smaller creeks, plus the topographic challenges of canyons, badlands, and low mountain ranges. The weather was less than ideal. In addition to these natural dangers, there were rustlers and occasional conflicts with Native Americans if a trail boss failed to pay a toll of 10 cents a head to local tribes for the right to cross Indian lands (Oklahoma at that time was Indian Territory, governed from Fort Smith, Arkansas). Finally, there was the natural contrariness of the half-wild Texas longhorn cattle themselves, which were prone to stampede with little provocation.

Legacy

Red River (1948), directed by Howard Hawks, is a fictional account of the first drive along the Chisholm Trail, starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. The trail is the subject of a country song, Old Chisholm Trail. Among those who have covered the song are Gene Autry, Girls of the Golden West, Michael Martin Murphey, Tex Ritter, and Roy Rogers.

Many schools have been named after the Chisholm Trail, including Chisholm Trail Junior High School [2] in Olathe, Kansas, Chisholm Trail Elementary School[3] in Wichita, Kansas and an intermediate school in Keller, Texas, named "Chisholm Trail Intermediate School".

Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, located in Duncan, Oklahoma, is an interactive museum dedicated to the history of the Chisholm Trail. It also has a large monument depicting a scene from the Chisholm Trail cattle drive, as well as a trail walkway. [4]

On the second weekend of June, Lockhart in Caldwell County holds a four-day festival to celebrate its place on the Chisholm Trail.

On September 26, 2009, an historical marker on the Chisholm Trail was unveiled at the site of the Red River Station in Montague County. The 5.5-foot concrete marker is the last of twelve erected in Montague County as part of a joint project of the Texas Lakes and Trails and the Montague County Historical Commission to outline the Chisholm Trail.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Donald E. Worcester: "Chisholm Trail" from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
2. ^ Wichita Falls Times Record News, September 27, 2009

External links

• History on the trail from the "Kansas Heritage Group"
• Oklahoma Historical Society Page on the Chisholm Trail by Steven D. Dortch
• Up the Chisholm Trail by the Williamson County Historical Commission
• Chisholm Trail from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Along the Chisholm Trail Web site with maps, history, monuments, and guides for visiting.
• Map of the Trail Single web site with a simple reference map.
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Chisholm Trail