DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now settle in, because this one's about a trail so big it made the Chisholm Trail look like a Sunday stroll. Between 1874 and 1886, millions of cattle moved up the Great Western Trail — millions, friend, not thousands — pushed north out of South Texas all the way to the midwestern United States, where railroads were waiting to carry them east to market.
And when I say the Great Western surpassed the Chisholm Trail in both length and volume, I mean it did so by the marker's own accounting. That is not a small thing to say out loud in Texas. The Chisholm Trail is practically a religion around here.
But there it is. The Great Western was bigger. Longer.
Louder, I'd wager, though nobody put that part in writing. Now, the trail didn't just pass through Throckmorton County — it had a major impact on its development. That's the kind of thing that changes a place from open range to something people put down roots in.
And here's the detail that really gets me: the drovers pushing those massive herds north would sometimes end up with cattle that were too weak or too young to make the entire trek. So what did they do? They sold them — or sometimes just gave them — to area ranchers.
Those cattle became the foundation herds. The ranches of this county built their herds from those so-called drags of the Western Trail, the stragglers, the ones that couldn't quite keep up. Cattle ranching would go on to become the major economic base in Throckmorton County.
The leftovers built an industry. Chew on that a moment. And the trail isn't entirely gone, not really.
Modern U.S. Highway 183 follows the exact route of the Great Western Trail from Throckmorton to Seymour. So next time you're rolling down that stretch of 183, just remember — you're driving a road that millions of cattle walked first.
What the marker says
Between 1874 and 1886, millions of cattle were driven up the Great Western Trail from South Texas to the midwestern U.S., where they were sent east to market by train. The Great Western surpassed the Chisholm Trail in both length and volume. The trail passed through Throckmorton County and had a major impact on its development. Many area ranches built herds from "drags" of the Western Trail; drovers sold or gave these cattle to ranchers because they were too weak or young to make the entire trek. Cattle ranching would become the major economic base in the county. Modern U.S. Highway 183 follows the exact route of the trail from Throckmorton to Seymour. (2009)