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Western Cattle Trail

Ben Brooks (my wife's grandfather) drove cattle on the Western from Texas to Kansas when he met her grandmother, Ethel McDonald. Following the Civil War, Texas found itself with many long horned cattle, but no markets. The demand for beef in the Northeast was high. As the railhead in Kansas moved further west, four major trails developed from south to north. The last one formed was the Great Western. It entered Oklahoma at Doan's Crossing south of Altus and exited Oklahoma at the Kansas border northwest of Buffalo, going on to Dodge City, Kansas. The painting depicts cattle crossing the Canadian River near Camargo in Dewey County. John Lytle blazed this new trail in 1874, and through the 1880's and 1890's, over 300,000 head of cattle, 7,000 horses and over 1,000 men moved north on the Great Western each year. Since the Indian tribes, Apaches, Kiowas and Comanches, as depicted, had their major source of food, the buffalo, depleted, it became important that they live on the cattle going north. It was common to negotiate the number of beeves for the privilege of crossing their lands and grazing on their grasses. As the railroad developed through Texas and Oklahoma these cattle trails soon became unnecessary.

The greatest cattle trail in distance, length of time, and volume of cattle was the Western Cattle Trail. It existed from 1874 to 1886 and was over two thousand miles long. Its impact on ranching in the northern plains was tremendous. It was the Texas longhorns predominantly from the Western Trail that seeded the cattle operations in Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas north and west of Ogallala, Nebraska. Drovers from south and west Texas pushed the hardy animals across Texas, Indian Territory, and Kansas to Ogallala. From there, routes fanned out various directions, taking herds to grasslands to mature; then many of the herds were brought back in a couple of seasons to the Ogallala, Nebraska, and Julesburg, Colorado, railheads to be shipped back east to beef markets.

The volume of cattle being shipped from the railheads off the Western Trail likewise exceeded the former cattle trails. Because of sheer numbers of over five million cattle and one million horses in twelve seasons, terminals along the Western frail shipped thousands of cattle cars back east. The longhorned creatures were packed into wooden railcars, twenty to twenty-five at a time, and sent to packing houses in Kansas City Omaha, St. Louis, or Chicago.

In its peak years of 1880 to 1884, herds of longhorns traveled the Western Trail lined up like dominoes, one after the other. If a rain-swelled river caused a break in the procession, then a bottleneck could occur and tens of thousands of cattle could be trapped in one location. It became a nightmare for the drovers. The Western was a monumental cattle trail.

The Western Trail, however, is currently overshadowed by the famous Chisholm Trail. This important cattle route also carried millions of cattle, starting in 1867 when the Abilene railhead became available to cattlemen. Because this era in history has been so dramatized in song, poetry, novels, movies, and TV shows, the general public has embraced the folklore and often assumes that all cattle trails are the Chisholm or if it is a cattle trail, then it must be the Chisholm. This misnomer has caused great confusion and debate. The public needs to realize that there were many cattle trails, not just the Chisholm, and there was one cattle trail that was greater and had more impact than the Chisholm and that was the Western Cattle Trail.

The Chisholm Trail was not the first cattle trail nor was it the last. The era of trailing cattle north from Texas involved many trails. The two largest trails were the Chisholm and the Western. A more correct terminology would be the Eastern and the Western. The earlier route trailed up to the notorious eastern Kansas railheads of Abilene, Ellsworth, and Wichita, and the later route trailed up the west side of Indian Territory, to Dodge City, and beyond. The Eastern Trail lasted ten seasons (1867-1876) and the Western carried longhorns for twelve seasons (1874-1886).

The Eastern started in 1867 at different points in south Texas and headed north to the newly opened railhead at Abilene in Kansas. The herds crossed the Red River into Indian Territory at what would become known as the Red River Station. At the Washita River (present-day Chickasha, Okla.) the drovers came upon a freight trail blazed by Jesse Chisholm. This well established route had been used since 1865 by Chisholm and a partner, James Mead, across Indian Territory to and from Chisholm's trading post at the mouth of the Little Arkansas (now Wichita, Kansas). Drovers used Chisholm's Trail (as it was known in 1865) to its end and then continued on north to Abilene. In the next few years, the trail became known as the Chisholm Trail and it connected with various eastern railheads including Ellsworth, Newton, Wichita, and Caldwell. As the eastern Kansas counties filled up with settlers, and as more and more longhorns were being driven into the state, the problem with the Texas cattle as carriers of Texas Fever became a significant issue. Ranchers and homesteaders believed that when Texas longhorns came in contact with their domestic cattle, it meant devastation. Texas cattle carried a disease that was nearly one hundred percent fatal to their livestock. Likewise, no longer did local cattlemen want the competition for the grazing, and the settlers didn't want destructive herds coming across their homesteads. Therefore, pressure from local cattlemen and farmers pushed the Kansas Legislature into passing quarantine laws forbidding Texas cattle from the area. The first "deadline" to be drawn by the state was in 1872, but the quarantine law of 1875 was significant in that it shut down all of the established eastern cattle shipment depots to the incoming Texas longhorns and forced the trail to move westward.

This more westerly trail, which was blazed to avoid the settlements of homesteaders and ranchers and to adhere to the law of 1875, was the Western Cattle Trail. It started as far south as Brownsville, Texas, and pushed north, crossing the Red River into Indian Territory at what would become known as Doan's Crossing. It trailed north through the western part of the Territory, cutting through the Wichita Mountains, crossing the Washita, Canadian, and Cimarron rivers, and passing some fifteen miles west of Camp Supply. From there it headed for Dodge City Kansas. Cattle to be delivered farther north were detoured around Dodge and drovers pushed the herds across western Kansas to points north such as Ogallala, Nebraska, the Dakota Territory, Wyoming, the Montana ranges, and Canada. The Trail thrived for twelve seasons, until it, too, was quarantined out of existence.

People have confused the Eastern and Western trails' locations and names almost from the beginning. In the trail drivers' narratives in Hunter's book, The Trail Drivers of Texas, the drovers who rode the various trails north, for the most part, simply referred to "up the trail." Many didn't care about the name; it was the destination that was always noted. Some of the old timers later called the Trail the "Chisholm" regardless of what trail they had used as a drover.

To add to the confusion, as the trails progressed north, each locale gave the Trail its own name. According to the Old Time Trail Drivers' Association, the trail blazed out of Texas toward Abilene was known as the "Longhorn Eastern" to the point where it intersected Chisholm's Trail on the Washita River in Indian Territory. In Indian Territory, the Eastern (or Chisholm) was also called the Caldwell Trail because some herds' destination, in later years, was to the shipping pens at the border town of Caldwell. In Kansas, especially north of Wichita, it was the Abilene Trail because of the name of the railhead at Abilene. The cut-off from Pond Creek in the Cherokee Strip to Ellsworth was called the Ellsworth Trail or Cox's Trail.

Two recorded drovers indicate that the Trail from Texas to Abilene and beyond was at first called the Eastern, before it became the popularized Chisholm. "Broncho John" (John Sullivan), a very early drover, called the Trail the "Eastern" when he wrote in his memoirs about their difficulties with "different tribes of wild people" and that their trip from Texas to Columbus, Nebraska, (date not stated) was so troublesome with "human enemies, white, black or red," that "we had to leave the Eastern Cattle Trail, afterwards called the Chissim [Chisholm] Trail, on account of cattle thief gangs." Trail driver S. H. Woods, also referred to the entire trail, even north of the Red River, as the Eastern when he wrote of his 1881 drive that "We started from Monument Hills about 15 miles north of Red River Station on the old Chisholm Trail which was known at that time as the Eastern Trail."

The Western Cattle Trail, likewise, suffered from being called by different names. Trail driver N. J. McElroy wrote that, at first, the western route was called the "Lone Star Trail." The state of Oklahoma and H. S. Tennant called it the "Texas Cattle Trail" in a 1931 study. C. F. Doan, owner of the store at Doan's Crossing on the Red River, identified it as the "Fort Griffin - Fort Dodge Trail," while locals north of the Red River in Indian Territory referred to it as the "Dodge City Trail." In Kansas, it was sometimes called the "Dodge - Ogallala Trail," and the cutoff to Hays City and Ellis was called the "Hays City - Ellis Trail." In Nebraska, the Trail became the "Texas Trail" and further north, it was the "Texas - Montana Trail." All of the names are part of the entire Western Cattle Trail.

The confusion with names and the controversy over the Chisholm peaked in early 1931, for two events happened that year. The Old Time Trail Drivers' Association at their 17th annual reunion in 1931 saw a need to write resolutions to set the record straight. Because of "conflicting ideas about the location of the Chisholm Trail" and because "there is now a movement to mark cattle trails through Texas," the association resolved "that the Chisholm Trail proper started at the Red River Station and extended north to Abilene, Kansas."

The Doan daughters stated that the name Chisholm was mistakenly used for the later trail, and in many instances, names were not used at all, or a local label was attached to the trail. They were emphatic in stating that the route that passed by their store was not the Chisholm, a mistake they tried to set straight.

According to old trail-drivers and old cow-boys this was not called the Chisholm trail at that time. The cow-boys merely spoke of it as the trail, the word Chisholm was not used. This is not on the Chisholm trial. The trail drivers sometimes called this the Western Trail and some times it was called the Texas-Kansas Trail. My father [C. F. Doan] said the trail was called Fort Griffin - Fort Dodge Trail. About two or three years before my father died he emphatically stated that this was not the Chisholm trail. This trail passes through Kiowa and Comanche country. The real Chisholm trail went through the Creek and Cherokee country. Four hundred Texas cowmen of the Texas Trail Drivers Association went on record stating the fact that this was not the Chisholm Trail. The Chisholm Trail started from Red River Station.

Both the Old Time Trail Drivers' Association and the Doan daughters made a point: the Western Cattle Trail crossed at Doan's Crossing. In October, after Tennant's interview with the Doans and after the 17th annual reunion of the Old Time Trail Drivers, a marker was placed at Doan's Crossing. The inscription on the twelve-foot tall granite monument read:

In honor of the trail drivers who freed Texas from the yoke of debt and despair by their trails to the cattle markets of the far north, we dedicate this stone, symbol of their courage and fortitude, at the site of the old Doan's Store, October 20-21, 1931. The Longhorn Chisholm Trail and the Western Trail, 1876-1895. This monument built of Texas Granite, by G. W. Backus.

What is the word "Chisholm" doing on the marker? The Old Time Trail Drivers had emphatically resolved that the Western Trail (or the Fort Griffin and Dodge City Trail) crossed at Doan's Crossing on the Red River. They also resolved that the Chisholm Trail was only in Indian Territory north of the Red River Station. The marker may have intended to honor all trail drivers coming up the trail on both the Eastern and Western trails, but the Old Time Trail Drivers and the Doans wanted to tell the world that the Western route was at this location. The stone, as it stands, makes the confusion worse! The trail drivers had stated that they would back a monument on the banks of Doan's Crossing for the Western Trail. How did the officers for the Old Time Trail Drivers' Association and the Doan sisters let this blatant error get past them?

The answer is money. And the president of the Old Time Trail Drivers' Association, George W. Saunders, said plenty. Bertha Doan Ross was furious. At the dedication Saunders and twenty three of his fellow Texas trail drivers were there. There were around twenty other former drovers there from other parts of the country. Saunders said later that "about 6 or 7 early drivers were gazing at the inscription with shame." He had to console Mrs. Ross and "kept her quiet.”

The money came from a promoter, a man by the name of P. P. Ackley who had lived around Dodge City as a boy and at the age of nineteen went up the trail from Dodge to Ogallala. The year was 1878. He also became a deputy trail brand inspector for a time. In his later years he moved to Texas and eventually ended up at Elk City, Oklahoma. Peter Ackley then became passionate about promoting cowboy history, himself, and, in particular, the Western Trail that he had come to know. Being a man of means, he set out to survey (along with others) the western route in order to mark its location. He headed a "trail marking movement" and for this he became known fondly by his friends and associates as "Daddy" Ackley.

In 1931, Ackley donated $1,000 in cash which "caused the placing of the handsome marker on the old trail at Doan's Crossing on Red River..." Shortly before his death he donated land so that Elk City could have a park (Ackley Park) to "stand as a monument to the old trail drivers who once moved Texas cattle herds north through Oklahoma to the Kansas railheads and the rich ranges in Montana and Dakotas." The park was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the city of Elk City in 1938-39. Peter P Ackley died at the age of 81 in 1940.

The well-meaning Daddy Ackley, trail driver and promoter, insisted on calling the western route, the "Longhorn Chisholm Trail" or the "Texas Chisholm Trail" and because of his push, years of devotion, and money, he got his way. Within weeks after the monument's dedication at Doan's Crossing, George W. Saunders on Old Time Trail Drivers of Texas letterhead stationary, wrote J. Frank Dobie at the University of Texas, and asked Dobie his opinion "about this muddle." He said "Ackley and six or seven other men" insisted that the trail "was named for John Chisholm [quoting Ackley]." Saunders then explained that "John Chisum never drove cattle to the northern markets and never had a trail named for him." It seems, as Saunders states it, "Ackley told his story to new comers in Oklahoma and they believed him." Saunders then told Dobie the reason why he did not protest the word "Chisholm" on tne monument."...Ackley wrote me that if we protested he had a right to ask Mrs. Ross to return his $1,000. On Mrs. Ross account I wrote Ackley that as he had donated $1,000 he had a right to put what he pleased on the monument, but he would be ignoring Texas history."

Saunders then wrote a second seething letter to Ackley in Elk City, Oklahoma. He told him in no uncertain terms that he could prove through one thousand letters from "old boys" that "the Chisholm Trail never entered Texas and John Chisum never drove a single herd to the Northern markets and never claimed any trail was named for him. . ."

John Rossel, a native Kansan and history instructor, added his comments in The Kansas Historical Quarterly. He felt that the true history of the Chisholm Trail needed to be told because of "the many misconceptions which are held concerning it." He felt that the "conflict as to the location of the Chisholm trail" was best illustrated by a comment made by W. P. Anderson, the railroad agent at Abilene during its heyday as a cowtown: Nominally every man that came up the trail felt as though he had traversed the old Chisholm trail. Each westward movement of the cattle industry necessitated a new trail, yet so strong was the force of habit, each in succession continued to be known as the Chisholm trail. "Separating myth and fantasy from historical fact, the issue is clear," Rossel goes on to say and notes that: Desire for historical importance, or any other reason, cannot alter the fact that the Chisholm trail extended from Indian territory to Wichita, and thence north to Abilene. Although the trail drivers may have believed and are now willing to argue that they were traveling over the Chisholm trail, when traversing the western route, this cannot change historical fact.

The controversy continued into the next decade. In 1949, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram printed in large, bold letters under the Trail Drivers Association map "Eastern Trail, Not Chisholm, Ran Through Fort Worth to Railheads." Trail Drivers were still trying to relay to Texans that the Chisholm Trail was not in Texas. But as the Texas Historical Commission Travel Guide shows today Fort Worth has claimed the name Chisholm anyway. Knowledgeable researchers and historians do not agree on an exact name for the eastern route either. Wayne Gard in his work, The Chisholm Trail, (1954) refers to the entire route from the farthest southern tip of Texas to the Kansas railheads as the Chisholm Trail. His reasoning is that since the full route was used by cowboys who used the name, he decided to use the name "Chisholm." Chris Jefferies, executive director of the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center at Duncan, Oklahoma, strongly agrees. He says, "Everyone ended up calling it Chisholm's Trail whether it was his trail or not. Chisholm Trail meant cattle trail." Jim Gray, editor of the Kansas Cowboy, also falls into this camp. In his March, 2002, issue he stated that:

The plain fact is...Folks have not been able to come to any agreement about the trail because the name Chisholm has become a part of the common folklore of the cattle trailing business. That doesn't fit in a tidy little corner for the historian, but in the end, the Chisholm Trail belongs to those who feel its spirit. Those who don't, are doomed to debate till `Hell freezes over.'

Don Worcester admits in his work, The Chisholm Trail, High Road of the Cattle Kingdom, (1980) that many people today restrict the use of the name to only that part of the trail that was actually used in Indian Territory, but the "name was applied indiscriminately to any route cattle followed out of Texas." Supporters of the Chisholm name for the entire route point out that, for promotional purposes, no one connects with the word "Eastern" and that the whole trail was eventually called the Chisholm anyway.

The Texas purists and serious historians who hold tight to the Old Time Trail Drivers' 1931 resolution, do not recognize the Chisholm name south of the Red River and become out raged when northerners seek to post their "Chisholm Trail" signs along the Texas route. Tom B. Saunders IV, a fifth-generation cattle rancher from Weatherford, Texas, and great, great nephew of George W. Saunders, and Pat Halpin, current president of the Old Trail Drivers' Association in Austin, loudly assert that the Trail in Texas was never referred to as the Chisholm. It was the Eastern Trail, they argue, and in Texas there were many feeder routes to the main Trail. Saunders and Halpin want to be certain that history is not rewritten and that the trails be accurately identified.

The controversy is as hot today as it was in 1931. In a January, 2001, press release, the Chisholm Trail was promoted with a map from Kingsville, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, to Abilene, Kansas, with the words, "Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma are working together to tap into the economic potential of the Chisholm Trail." Within months, Wichita, Oklahoma City and Fort Worth all ran articles about the debate of the Chisholm Trail in Texas. The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City said it best with their headline: "Texas cattle route drives controversy." Throughout Fort Worth, there are signs depicting the Chisholm Trail and some historians are fuming, but like Jim Gray says, the debate will probably continue till Hell freezes over.

Gary and Margaret Kraisinger. The Western: The Greatest Texas Cattle Trail, 1874-1886. Mennonite Press; 1st edition. January 2004.

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