Cattle Drives and Trails

There were millions of buffaloes in the west. the Transcontinental railroad was just created. In the eastern cities people needed food. cowboys, also known as cowhands and vaqueros would move them from as low as Texas to the railroad to ship them to the eastern cities.

The dangers mountain men dealt with were mountain lions and mountain goats.

a popular cattle drive route in the years after the Civil War

A cattle trail is a long piece of dirt path that is only a foot in width and an infinity in length that cattle have made to follow, leading to and from their source of water and mineral and pasture.

These trails are fun to bike along with a mountain bike, especially if the trail is used frequently. However these trails also house many a cow-patty along the way, so watch out if you don't want to have to hose down your bike (and yourself) after every trip out in the pasture.

A lot of cattle ranches were in vast open spaces away from big cities like New York. There was a limited transport network so the easiest way to get livestock from A to B was to walk them. They were taken to railheads in places like Kansas for shipments to stockyards in Chicago and farther east. This also insured fresh beef or pork where it was required, i.e the cities.

The definition of a cattle drive is when you drive cattle from a ranch to the railroad for slaughter.

the cowboy needs cattle, food, horses and a laso

The trails were the Oregon trail and the California trail the California trail led to California and the Oregon trail led to Missouri.

Those were jobs that were available. There was lots of demand back east in restaurants for beef, the cattle were raised out west far from the few western railroads, so it was necessary to hire cowboys to drive the cattle all the way from the range to the railroad.

Within about 10 years the railroads expanded and went directly to where the cattle were raised and the age of cowboys and long cattle drives came to an end. The cowboys lost their jobs.

Back in the day, cattle were kept in open range, so different herds could be mixed up. After calves were born in the spring, the owners and their cowboys would round up the cattle and sort out which calves belonged to which mother and brand them accordingly. If the cattlemen were going to take the cattle to be sold, then they could work together to get them to market since ownership was clear.

Texas Ranchers sent their longhorns on cattle drives because the demand of the cattle in Texas was low. But high in the north and east. Demand and supply affect the price of nearly everything that was bought and sold - not just the cattle.

Kansas had railroads

The increase in population along cattle trails led to the development of settlements and ranches, causing conflicts between the cattle drives and local communities. As a result, laws were passed to regulate the movement of cattle and prevent further conflicts, ultimately leading to the decline of cattle drives.

they had to gather up the herd, making sure all were branded

Chicago Great Western Railroad ended in 1941.

Chisholm Trail Academy was created in 1967.

The cast of Cattle Drive - 1951 includes: Leon Ames as Chester Graham Sr. Emile Avery as Cowpuncher Henry Brandon as Jim Currie Frank Chase as Cowhand Harold Goodwin as Waiter Timmy Hawkins as Tommy Carol Henry as Cowpuncher Hugh Hooker as Cowpuncher Cactus Mack as Train Passenger Lewis Martin as Winston Joel McCrea as Dan Mathews Tom McDonough as Cowpuncher Kenneth Patterson as Mason Howard Petrie as Cap Chuck Roberson as Chuck Saunders Bob Steele as Charlie Morgan aka Careless Dean Stockwell as Chester Graham, Jr. James Van Horn as Cowpuncher Chill Wills as Dallas

20 years

It is not known exactly, but branding supposedly has its roots in Ancient Egypt as a means to determine which livestock were owned by which man without having to keep them in a fenced area, which was nonexistent at that time.

Cattle drivers led cattle from north Texas to Nebraska and Kansas between 1867 and 1871 primarily due to the demand for beef in the growing markets of the East. The expansion of railroads into these states facilitated the transportation of cattle to meatpacking centers, allowing ranchers to capitalize on higher prices. Additionally, the end of the Civil War and the opening of new grazing lands in the West created opportunities for cattle drives, making it a profitable venture for cattlemen during this period.

The Great Western Cattle Trail stretched approximately 1,500 miles from southern Texas to railheads in Kansas, particularly in the areas of Abilene and Dodge City. Established in the late 1800s, it was a major route for cattle drives, facilitating the movement of cattle to markets in the north. The trail played a significant role in the development of the cattle industry in the United States.