I'm heading to the Stockyards tonight to go to Billy Bob's. You know I'm from Cowtown, right? Anyway, because of my outing tonight here's a bit about the Chisholm Trail. Now, there's a lot more history to this trail. Some interesting facts about the diseases the ticks on longhorns carried, and how they made all the other, wussier cattle drop like flies. How the trail was named... but I'm just gonna stick with a few things today that relate more to where I live. If you want to learn more there are some great books and web sites with detailed maps and history.
Chisholm Trail:
A trail used in the mid to late 1800’s to drive cattle, especially longhorns, from Texas to the railheads in Kansas.
Many places in Texas claim to be starting points for the Chisholm Trail. I’m not sure they really know, it’s not like cowboys blogged about it back then. There were a lot of small trails that fed into the main trail at the Red River. Many of these small trails in Texas were said to be part of the Chisholm Trail, so you can see how it's difficult to pin down one location as a start.
An estimated 5,000,000 head of Texas cattle followed the trail.
The Chisholm Trail Heritage Center is in Duncan, Oklahoma.
In March 2009 President Obama authorized a study for the National Park service to determine if several trails should be designated historic, including the Chisholm Trail.
The Fort Worth Stockyards was the last major stop on that branch of the trail in Texas before crossing the Red River then moving into Indian Territory.
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