Chisholm Trail

For other uses, see Chisholm Trail (disambiguation).
1873 Map of Chisholm Trail with Subsidiary Trails in Texas (from Kansas Historical Society)

The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland, from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The portion of the trail marked by Jesse Chisholm went from his southern trading post near the Red River, to his northern trading post near Kansas City, Kansas.

Overview

Texas ranchers using the Chisholm Trail started on the route from either the Rio Grande or San Antonio and went to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway in Abilene, Kansas, where the cattle would be sold and shipped eastward. Newspaper accounts from 1870 supports the claim that the Chisholm never entered Texas. This has been clouded by a "Revisionist History" movement starting in 1911 and revived again in 1998 and continuing today. In the 1930s, Revisionist Peter Preston Ackley is quoted in a New York Paper as claiming that the Chisholm Trail started in South America and ended in Canada, passing through his hometown of Enid Oklahoma. He threw a party in his hometown proclaiming himself as the "Father of the Chisholm Trail" although there is no evidence that he ever trailed cattle.

The trail is named for Jesse Chisholm although 1871 newspaper says the Trail in Oklahoma was named for Wm. Chislin who had built several trading posts in what was then Indian Territory and is now central Oklahoma, before the American Civil War. Jesse Chisholm was a 3rd generation slave trader who married a slave trader's daughter. Jesse Chisholm's slave dealings drew the attention of two U.S. presidents. Chisholm was Sam Houston's nephew who did not support the Confederacy and vacated his position as the leader of Texas. Chisholm defected from the Confederacy and joined the Union against Texas and the South. This fact would probably have caused him to be hung had he returned to Texas.( See the "Hanging War") Immediately after the war, he and the Lenape Black Beaver collected stray Texas cattle and drove them to railheads over the Chisholm Trail, shipping them to the East to feed citizens, where beef commanded much higher prices than in the West.

Business aspects

By 1853, Texas cattle were being driven into Missouri, where local farmers began blocking herds and turning them back because the Texas Longhorns carried ticks that caused diseases in other types of cattle. Violence, vigilante groups, and cattle rustling caused further problems for the drovers. By 1859, the driving of cattle was outlawed in many Missouri jurisdictions. By the end of the Civil War, most cattle were being moved up the western branch of trail at Red River Station in Montague County, Texas.

In 1866, cattle in Texas were worth only $4 per head, compared to over $40 per head in the North and East, because lack of market access during the American Civil War had led to over stock of cattle in Texas. In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards in Abilene, Kansas. He encouraged Texas cattlemen to drive their herds to his stockyards. The stockyards shipped 35,000 head that year and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, Kansas.

That same year, O. W. Wheeler answered McCoy's call, and he along with partners used the Chisholm Trail to bring a herd of 2,400 steers from Texas to Abilene. This herd was the first of an estimated 5,000,000 head of Texas cattle to reach Kansas over the Chisholm Trail.[1][2]

Route

Chisholm Trail crossing through modern-day Duncan, Oklahoma
Chisholm Trail historical marker in Kingfisher, Oklahoma
Marker of the end of the Chisholm Trail in Donna, Texas

Today, some historians consider the Chisholm Trail to have started at Donna, Texas, or at San Antonio. From 1867 to 1871, the trail ended in Abilene, Kansas. Later, Newton, Kansas, and Wichita, Kansas, each served as the end of the trail. From 1883 to 1887, the end of the trail was Caldwell, Kansas. Ellsworth, Kansas, is also considered a major influence of the trail.

In 1931, George W. Saunders, then president of the Old Trail Drivers Association and an authority on Texas livestock history wrote: "The famed Chisholm Trail, about which more has been written than any other Southwestern Trail, cannot be traced in Texas for the reason that it never existed in this State." It was always understood by pioneer cattlemen that they would strike the Chisholm Trail at Red River Station, at the mouth of Salt Creek in Montague County, where they left Texas and crossed into the Indian Territory.

In Texas, hundreds of feeder trails headed north to one of the main cattle trails. In the early 1840s, most cattle were driven up the Shawnee Trail. The Chisholm Trail was previously used by Indian hunting and raiding parties; the trail crossed into Indian Territory (present-day west-central Oklahoma) near Red River Station (in present-day Montague County, Texas) and entered Kansas near Caldwell. Through Oklahoma, the Chisholm Trail generally follows the route of US Highway 81 through present-day towns of El Reno, Duncan, and Enid.[3]

Challenges

On the long trips — up to two months — the cattlemen faced many difficulties. They had to cross major rivers such as the Arkansas River and the Red River, and innumerable smaller creeks, plus the topographic challenges of canyons, badlands and low mountain ranges. The weather was less than ideal. In addition to these natural dangers, rustlers and occasional conflicts with Native Americans erupted. The latter demanded that drovers, the trail bosses, pay a toll of 10 cents a head to local tribes for the right to cross Indian lands (Oklahoma at that time was Indian Territory, governed from Fort Smith, Arkansas). The half-wild Texas Longhorn cattle were contrary and prone to stampede with little provocation.

Legacy

At least 27 movies have depicted a fictional account of the first drive along the Chisholm Trail, including: The Texans (1938), directed by James P. Hogan and starring Randolph Scott and Joan Bennett, and Red River (1948), directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. Walter Brennan co-starred in both films in his usual grizzled-old-coot role.

The trail is the subject of at least two pop songs: "The Last Cowboy Song" written and recorded by Ed Bruce, also performed by The Highwaymen, and the song "The Old Chisholm Trail." Among those who have covered the song are Gene Autry, Girls of the Golden West, Woody Guthrie, Michael Martin Murphey, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, and Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter), although his version was titled "When I Was A Cowboy".

In 1964, Texas rancher Charles Schreiner, III, founded the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America. The next year, he conducted a cattle drive from San Antonio to Dodge City with a stop at the LBJ Ranch in Gillespie County, home of then U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. The drive was promoted as a centennial commemoration of the original Chisholm Trail drives.[4]

Many schools have been named after the Chisholm Trail, including:

Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, located in Duncan, Oklahoma, is an interactive museum dedicated to the history of the trail. It has a large monument depicting a scene from the Chisholm Trail cattle drive, as well as a trail walkway.[7]

On the second weekend of June, Lockhart, Texas in Caldwell County holds a four-day festival to celebrate its place on the Chisholm Trail. Newton, Kansas also holds a three- to four-day Chisholm Trail Festival, combining it with the annual Fourth of July celebration.

On September 26, 2009, a historical marker on the Chisholm Trail was unveiled at the site of Red River Station in Montague County. The 5.5-foot concrete marker is the last of 12 erected in Montague County as part of a joint project of the Texas Lakes and Trails and the Montague County Historical Commission to outline the Chisholm Trail (as said in Wichita Falls Times Record News).

In 2014, the North Texas Tollway Authority constructed a 26-mile-long toll road named after the trail, the Chisholm Trail Parkway connecting downtown Fort Worth, Texas to the nearby city of Cleburne.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Worcester, Donald E.: "Chisholm Trail" from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
  2. ↑ Dortch, Steven D. "Chisholm Trail". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  3. ↑ Oklahoma Map of Chisholm Trail Oklahoma State University Digital Library Collections
  4. ↑ Douglas Martin (April 29, 2001). "Charles Schreiner III, 74, Dies; Colorful Texas Rancher Fought to Save Longhorn". New York Times. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  5. ↑ Olathe School's website
  6. ↑ USD 259: Chisholm Trail website
  7. ↑ Chisholm Trail Heritage Center Chisholm Trail art, culture, and history - Duncan, Oklahoma

External links

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