Chisholm Trail
Texas-to-Kansas drove
The Chisholm Trail was the principal route for driving cattle from Texas to Kansas railheads in the years following the Civil War.
Cowboys herded millions of longhorns north along the trail to towns like Abilene and Wichita, where the cattle could be shipped east by rail.
The trail's heyday lasted roughly from 1867 to the mid-1880s, when expanding railroads and barbed-wire fencing made long drives obsolete.
It remains a symbol of the American frontier and cowboy culture.
- cowboysRanch hands tending herds
- cattle drivesLong-distance livestock relocation
- droversLivestock transporters on foot
- cattleDomesticated bovines kept commercially
- Indian TerritoryFederal land for displaced tribes
Red River · Reconstruction Era · cattle town · prairie grass · Abilene · Wichita · livestock · longhorn cattle · night watch · Fort Worth · open range · Dodge City · railroads · branding · chuckwagon · roundup · wagon trails · longhorn
Chisholm Trailrailroad
Permanent track for trains
cattle cars · Union Pacific Railroad · stockyards · feedlots