The Cattle Kingdom Cowhands Cow Towns Cattle Boom

The Cattle Kingdom

Cowhands

Cow Towns

Cattle Boom

Creating a Cattle Kingdom Before the whites arrived in the west, the

Mexicans set up ranches– Strays from these ranches formed their own

herds called longhorns

After the war, the demand for beef went up– Eastern cities, miners, railroad crews, farmers

Texas ranchers began rounding up herds of longhorns and drove the animals hundreds of miles north to railroad lines in Kansas and Missouri called cattle drives

Chisholm Trail Jesse Chisholm was a half

Scottish half Cherokee man who made a cattle trail

In the 1860’s he began hauling goods by wagon between TX and KS Pacific Railroad

In 1867 ranchers began using this route

Within 5 years, more than 1 million cattle were driven on this route

Life of a Cowhand American cowhands learned from Spanish

vaqueros (skilled riders who herded cattle on ranches in Mexico, CA, and the SW)– Lariat, chaparreras, etc.

Days could last 18 hours– Hot, tiring, dirty– Worked in all weather and faced dangers like

thunderstorms, rattlesnakes, drowning, and stampedes

– Usually earned about $1 a day (low)

The first American cowboys adopted a number of Mexican

traditions and words, including chaps

The Cow Towns Cattle drives ended in cow towns – cattle

were held in great pens until they could be loaded into railroad cars and shipped to markets in the east– Ex: Abilene, TX or Dodge City, KS

Had dance halls, saloons, hotels, restaurants, barber shops, banks, churches– Sheriffs tried to keep the peace

Main street was where business was conducted

The Cattle Boom

1870’s ranches spread from Texas to the Plains called the Cattle Kingdom

Millions of dollars were invested in the area that created a boom

Cattle were allowed to grange on the open range and were branded to identify them

The End of the Cattle Kingdom

Barbed wire Range began to disappear used fences Not enough grass to feed the cattle Need to buy feed and land pushed up costs Diseases like “Texas fever” destroyed

herds Cold winters of 1886 and 1887 Heat and drought