Chisholm Trail
The post Civil War cattle drive route from Texas to the railheads of Kansas.
Overview
After the Civil War, Texas held millions of longhorns worth little locally but far more in northern cities. From 1867, when Joseph McCoy built stockyards at the railhead of Abilene, Kansas, drovers pushed huge herds north across the Red River and Indian Territory along the route named for trader Jesse Chisholm. Millions of cattle made the trip over the following two decades before barbed wire, quarantine laws against Texas fever, and expanding railroads ended the long drives. The trail made towns such as Abilene and Wichita, and the cowboy culture it bred became a lasting American myth.
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