Cattle Drives and Trails

The railroad and barbed wire fences.

Cattle can be slaughtered for meat. Since the bison where being hunted to the point the Native Americans couldn't hunt any for their own food, they found they could raid the cattle drives and steal some cattle for their own use.

It was also a way for young braves to prove their courage and bravery by attacking and fighting--ultimately with the hope of killing and collecting some scalps--with the cowboys driving the cattle herd.

East Shawnee Trail

Wild game, beef, stew, and plenty of black, strong coffee.

Yes, definitely. Cows were either being herded to market by cowboys, or being used as oxen for the pioneers taking their covered wagons to their different destinations in hopes and dreams of settling some land.

That way cattle could be moved from one side of the country to the other end.

12 men were needed

It means the last part of the herd that is being herded. Often the drag has animals that may go off on their own away from the herd, and one or two horsemen have to herd these rogue animals back to the herd. The drag portion of the cattle drive is considered a more advanced position to be in, not a place where greenhorns or tenderfeet should ride nor help out with the drive.

overgrazing

Moving the cattle from point "A" to point "B" for sale, and at the end, selling them all.

chisholm trail

"Working" cowboys are paid by the ranch owner. "Rodeo" cowboys have to win their events to collect prize money. "Urban" cowboys work at normal jobs 9-5 and hang out in country western bars at night. "Rhinestone" cowboys ... well, who knows

Abilene, Kansas

The cowboy way of life required the individual be independant, hardworking, usually rootless, impervious to harsh weather and a great skill dealing with cattle and horses. Personally, I'm not much of a camper.

Type your answer here... Chisolm Trail

Yes it did. Barbed wire closed the open range. People were fencing off their land preventing cattle from getting by easily. Ranchers had to take long ways around the enclosed areas. And by 1887 and 1888 a harsh winter came in and cattle could not get around the fencing making them freeze to death in the middle of the night. It was a sad part of history, but people still use barbed wire today.

Hollywood has given the public a somewhat 'idealized' view of life on a cattle drive. The reality was very different. Hard physical work, hour after hour on the back of a horse, in temperatures that ranged from sizzling heat to mind-numbing cold, rain, snow and wind that blows the endless dust from the hooves of cattle into the nose, eyes, ears and mouths of the cowboy.

Depending on where the drive started, the trip was usually several hundred miles and took 4 to 6 months to reach the railroad, one of the biggest cattle towns was Abeliene, KS. Sleeping on the hard ground, prey to biting insects and deadly snakes, unfriendly native Americans and cattle rustlers intent on relieving the cowboys of their livelihood or their life. Rivers had no bridges or ferries, you crossed on horseback, all worldly possessions completely soaked. They cowboy supplied his own horse, rope, and other tools necessary to the job. At trail's end, the cattle town held it's own dangers. After months on the job, the cowboy's pockets full from their pay, indulged in drinking, gambling and lewd women. Fights were commonplace, guns were drawn when tempers flared. Many of the cowboys spent their entire salaries within a few days, left scrambling for other work.

These men were independent, tough and couragous. And for some of them it was the only thing they wanted to do. It was a way of life that will never come again.

There was usually a forman, a cook with a chuck wagon and the cowboys. Larger operations may include a blacksmith for shoeing the horses and making repairs to the wheels on the wagons.

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on cattle drives.

Cattle drive came to an end because of the invention of the barbed wire and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Thousands of cattle also perished due to an outbreak of Texas Fever and the Great Winter of 1887-88, which also contributed to the end of the famous cattle drives of the Old West.

Because there was no other way or method to get their cattle to market. Trucks never existed back then, railroads were too slow to be built on time to get their cattle from their ranch all the way to the market, and the cattle trails provided an easy way to find their way from the ranch to the market place.

They used their knowledge of herding cattle and their horses to round them up from the home-base on the ranch, then moved them from the ranch to the place that they are going to sell them. Cattle drives always take more than one cowboy to complete. For instance, over a 500 head of cattle usually took about 10 horsemen to drive from point A to point B which often was 50 or 100 miles away.

Depending on the amount of cattle owned by the rancher that is driving them, anywhere from 1 - 10000000... it is simple

Confederate Veterans

The three great cattle trails include the western trail, the Chisholm trail and the goodnight loving trail.