Cattle drives were a major economic activity in the 19th and early 20th century American West, particularly between 1850s and 1910s. In this period, 27 million cattle were driven from Texas to railheads in Kansas, for shipment to stockyards in St. Louis and points east, and direct to Chicago. The long distances covered, the need for periodic rests by riders and animals, and the establishment of railheads led to the development of "cow towns" across the frontier.
According to the Kraisingers, "...four Texas-based cattle trails - the Shawnee Trail System, the Goodnight Trail System, the Eastern/Chisholm Trail System, and The Western Trail System - were used to drive cattle north during the forty-year period between 1846 and 1886."[1]
Due to the extensive treatment of cattle drives in fiction and film, the horse has become the worldwide iconic image of the American West, where cattle drives still occur.[2]
- ^ Kraisinger, Gary; Kraisinger, Margaret (2014). The Western Cattle Trail 1874-1897. Newton: Mennonite Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780975482810.
- ^ Skaggs, Jimmy M. The Cattle-Trailing Industry: Between Supply and Demand, 1876–1890 (University Press of Kansas, 1973)[page needed]