DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — so let the record show where this story comes from. Now, if you've spent any time in Texas, you've heard of the Chisholm Trail. Everybody has.
It's got the songs, it's got the fame, it's practically got its own publicist. But pull up a chair, because there's another trail that ran longer, carried more cattle, and stretched further north than the Chisholm ever dreamed — and it started right here near Bandera. The Great Western Cattle Trail.
Also known as the Old Texas Trail. Also known as the Dodge City Trail. Take your pick — it had aliases the way a wanted man does.
And by just about any name, it was the longest of all the nineteenth century trails used to drive cattle from Texas to distant markets. The story kicks off in 1874. Captain John T.
Lytle and other cowboys gathered up thirty-five hundred cattle from south Texas and pointed them north toward Fort Robinson, Nebraska. That drive — that single, ambitious push — blazed what would become the path. One drive, and suddenly there was a trail.
From near Bandera, the route ran north through Dodge City, Kansas, on to Ogallala, Nebraska, up through the Dakotas, and all the way into Canada. Canada. These were Texas longhorns standing eventually in Canadian grass, which is the kind of thing that ought to stop you for a moment.
Now, why did it all begin near Bandera? The marker's got a plain answer for that: plentiful water and grass. Bandera was an ideal staging and departure point, and when you're moving cattle across a continent, you want them well-watered and well-fed before you ask them to walk a very, very long way.
And walk they did — by the millions. Conservative estimates put the number of longhorns that used this trail somewhere between seven and ten million. Add to that one million horses and thirty thousand cowboys.
Thirty thousand. That's not a trail, that's a migration. All of that traffic served a purpose.
The Northeast had a high demand for beef, and the Great Western Cattle Trail answered that demand. Along the way, it created cattle companies, enterprises, and towns. And back in Texas, still finding its footing after the Civil War, the cattle market helped revitalize the economy.
Between 1855 and 1890, more than nine hundred fifty cattle marks and brands were registered in Bandera County alone — which tells you something about the scale of what was moving through here. But the trail that outlasted all the others couldn't outlast everything. In 1885, trouble came from two directions at once.
Diseased cattle from Texas prompted many northern states to ban the importation of Texan cattle during warm months. And barbed wire — that quiet revolution of the range — was fencing things off, limiting where a herd could go. The trail began losing popularity, and once a trail loses its purpose, it loses its pulse.
The last known drive came in 1893, when John Rufus Blocker traveled to Deadwood, South Dakota. After that — silence on the trail. The Great Western Cattle Trail Association has been working to make sure it isn't forgotten.
In 2004, they placed their first marker, with the goal of putting cement markers every six miles along the entire route. Every six miles. All the way to Canada.
Seems like the trail still has some walking left to do.
What the marker says
The Great Western Cattle Trail (also known as the Old Texas Trail and the Dodge City Trail) was the longest of all 19th century trails used to drive cattle from Texas to distant markets. In 1874, Capt. John T. Lytle and other cowboys led 3,500 cattle from south Texas to Fort Robinson, Nebraska. This path became the Great Western Cattle Trail, one of the most frequented routes for driving cattle across the country. Although the trail was less well-known than the Chisholm Trail, the Great Western Cattle Trail carried cattle for longer than all other trails. Over time, more than seven to ten million longhorns, one million horses and 30,000 cowboys used the trail, according to conservative estimates. The Great Western trail began near Bandera and extended north through Dodge City, Kansas to Ogallala, Nebraska, the Dakotas and into Canada. Bandera served as an ideal staging and departure point because of its plentiful water and grass for cattle. The cattle market fulfilled the Northeast's high demand for beef, created cattle companies, enterprises and towns along its path and helped revitalize Texas' post-Civil War economy. Between 1855 and 1890, more than 950 cattle marks and brands were registered in Bandera County. The Great Western Cattle Trail began to lose popularity in 1885, when diseased cattle from Texas prompted many northern states to ban the importation of Texan cattle in warm months, and when increased barbed wire fencing limited cattle drive mobility. The last known drive on the trail occurred when John Rufus Blocker traveled to Deadwood, South Dakota in 1893. In 2004, the Great Western Cattle Trail Association placed its first marker in an effort to place cement markers every six miles along the route. (2014)