In the years following the Civil War, cattle trailing became the main way ranchers in Texas got their herds to market. From around 1866 to 1890, this method made it possible to move large numbers of surplus cattle north to railheads where they could be sold and shipped east. The drives were tough—cowboys had to contend with angry farmers, barbed wire, and state-imposed quarantines—but the potential profits kept them going. Famous routes like the Chisholm Trail and the Western Trail saw millions of longhorns pass through. Entrepreneurs like Joseph G. McCoy helped create key livestock markets, and skilled drovers handled the long, dusty treks. These cattle drives became one of the most iconic chapters of the American frontier.
In the late 1800s, cattle trailing became the dominant method of getting Texas cattle to market. It was both practical and affordable, helping ranchers move excess livestock to where demand and prices were higher. Beyond its economic role, cattle trailing took on legendary status as a defining part of the American frontier experience.
Though its golden age was from 1866 to 1890, the practice of driving livestock to market dates back to the 1600s in places like Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. In the East, farmers often herded relatively tame cattle on foot with the help of shepherd dogs. In contrast, Texas trail drives involved mounted riders managing wild, unbranded longhorns, often mavericks, across hundreds of miles.
Early Cattle Drives and Expansion
By the 1830s, Texans were already trailing cattle east from Stephen F. Austin’s colony through swampy terrain to New Orleans, where prices were double what they fetched at home. After Texas became a state in the 1840s, ranchers began pushing herds north along the Shawnee Trail to states like Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio. There, local farmers bought the cattle to fatten them for nearby markets.
The first large-scale drive on record happened in 1846, when Edward Piper moved 1,000 head to Ohio. But Texas cattle brought with them more than beef—they carried “Texas fever,” a tick-borne disease that led to quarantines in Missouri and Kansas by the mid-1850s.
Meanwhile, the California gold rush had created huge demand for beef. Some Texans braved deserts and mountains to drive cattle west to mining camps, where an animal worth $14 in Texas might bring over $100.
After the Civil War: A Cattle Boom
During the Civil War, many Texas cattle were left to roam free and reproduce. By the war’s end in 1865, the state had millions of mostly unbranded longhorns, often worth just two dollars each. But up north, where livestock was scarce due to wartime consumption, the same animals could fetch up to forty dollars a head.
A few small drives began in 1865, but the real boom came in 1866, when Texans moved over 260,000 cattle toward new markets. Some were sent by riverboat to cities like Cairo and St. Louis, while others were trailed west by men like Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, who blazed a dangerous route to New Mexico and Colorado—soon known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail.
The majority, however, followed the more established Shawnee Trail north through Indian Territory toward railheads in Kansas City or Sedalia, Missouri. While some ranchers made good money, others faced armed resistance from farmers angry over renewed outbreaks of Texas fever. By the end of the year, states including Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Illinois had imposed harsh restrictions on Texas cattle drives.
Abilene and the Chisholm Trail
Cattle trailing might have ended there if not for the efforts of Joseph G. McCoy. A livestock buyer from Illinois, McCoy set up a cattle market in Abilene, Kansas, far from settled areas and near the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He convinced the railroad to invest in cattle facilities and even persuaded Kansas to look the other way on quarantine laws. McCoy advertised widely and helped bring in an estimated 35,000 head in 1867.
The main route to Abilene became known as the Chisholm Trail. Between 1867 and 1873, over 1.5 million Texas cattle traveled this route northward. When Abilene was closed to southern cattle in 1873 due to renewed quarantines, the trail’s endpoint shifted to towns like Wichita and Ellsworth.
The Role of Contract Drovers
Cattle drives soon became big business. Many ranchers hired professional trail bosses known as contract drovers, who charged around $1 to $1.50 per head to walk the cattle to market. These drovers, often former Confederate soldiers, became legends in their own right. Among the most successful were John T. Lytle, who drove half a million head, and others like the Blocker brothers, George Littlefield, and Charles Goodnight.
Drovers usually included their own cattle on the drives or bought animals in Texas to resell up north. Most of their profits came from volume and efficiency. By some estimates, contract drovers moved up to 90 percent of all trail-driven cattle during the height of the trade.
A typical herd had about 3,000 head and a crew of around eleven men. The cowboys were mostly white teenagers, while cooks and wranglers were often Black, Hispanic, or Native American men. Occasionally, women disguised as boys joined the drive. Wages ranged from $25 to $100 a month, depending on the job.
Despite romanticized Hollywood portrayals, trail life was hard and often monotonous. The cattle moved slowly—just 10 to 15 miles a day—grazing as they went. Days were long, and the work dusty and unglamorous, broken only by storms, river crossings, or the rare run-in with hostile tribes.
Shifting Trails
By 1876, many cattle drives began using a more westerly route: the Western Trail, also known as the Dodge City or Ogallala Trail. The eastern trails had become congested and crossed through increasingly settled areas, where farmers resisted the passage of trail herds. Native tribes in Indian Territory began demanding grazing fees, and quarantine laws kept tightening.
In 1874, John Lytle scouted and blazed the Western Trail, which eventually carried millions of cattle north. Dodge City became the new cattle capital, with herds moving as far as Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Montana.
To keep the trade alive, ranchers lobbied Congress to create a federally protected National Trail, which would skirt quarantine states and run through uninhabited regions to the Canadian border. But the proposal failed, and by 1885, most northern states had banned Texas cattle entirely. At the same time, barbed wire fencing began closing off traditional routes.
As trail access dwindled, ranchers increasingly turned to railroads. Though rail freight was more expensive than hiring drovers, it became the only practical option. The age of the great cattle trail was ending.
Legacy of the Trails
Cattle trailing played a prominent part in shaping the American West. Millions of longhorns roamed freely after the Civil War, creating a supply that fueled the cattle boom. Though longhorns were nearly wiped out by the early 20th century, their legacy lives on in Western lore.
The great trails of Shawnee, Chisholm, and Western, connected Texas ranches with northern markets and created the classic cowboy image. But the reality was far more complex: long days, tough work, and a diverse group of people behind the scenes who made the cattle drives possible.