The National Cattle Trail

I drew an arrow on this 1881 map of Texas and Indian Territory to show where the proposed "National Cattle Trail" would go - north from the 100th Meridian (UT Arlington).

The three major cattle trails that formed in the last half of the 19th century that reached from Texas to rail heads in mid-western states did not last for very long. The Shawnee Trail of the 1850s (aka Texas Trail, aka Sedalia Trail) was supplanted by the Abilene Trail of the 1870s (aka the Eastern Trail when the Western Trail opened and then, the Chisholm Trail by Good Roads promoters), which was then overtaken by the Western Trail of the 1880s (aka Fort Griffin to Dodge City Trail).

Other trails made their marks, too. There was Thornton Chisholm's Trail of the 1860s (not to be confused with the Abilene Trail), John Simpson Chisum's Trail into New Mexico in the 1870s (not to be confused with Thornton's or the Abilene Trail) and the famous Goodnight-Loving Trail, which didn't end at rail heads but extended into Wyoming to supply cattle stock to ranches from the 1860s to the 1880s.

So by the 1880s, the trails were pretty much done and gone, right? Well, not so fast there, pardner.

A headline in the Galveston Daily News, October 7, 1885 about the questions of Texas cattle transportation.

In 1884, cattleman John Lytle, who had established the Western Trail, recognized that the days of the great drives were quickly waning. The introduction of barbed wire allowed both farmers and ranchers to control access to land and water. Texas had no technology to transport cattle to the national slaughterhouses, like railroads or steamboats. But the most economically devastating problem was the "Texas fever," a tick-borne sickness carried by longhorn cattle that devastated non-Texas cattle herds. Kansas and other northern states thus enacted quarantine laws that severely restricted Texas drives. This is when John Lytle and other Texas stock drivers petitioned congress to build a "National Cattle Trail."

The National Cattle Trail would be a two-mile-wide (on average), designated highway that would reach from Mexico to Canada to bring Texas cattle to markets up north. Along the way, the herds could feed on grasslands on public lands and in the Indian nations. The cattle could be routed to rail heads for transportation to the markets at St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago, would have railroad crossings, and be serviced by towns along the way. Taking the Western Trail route, the road would allow the stock drivers to maintain their business while also being advantageous for the cowboys who could not only keep their jobs, but build up their own business as they could sell their own beeves. The Indian Nations and reservations in Indian Territory could also benefit from the road, as they could lease grazing lands to the outfits.

The first attempt at establishing this interstate highway occurred in early 1885, where "an act to establish a quarantined national live stock trail" was presented "for the purpose of driving cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, or other live stock to market." This trail was to begin "on the Red river, as near the 100th degree longitude as may deem practicable... thence running in a northerly direction through the Indian Territory, following... the present trail known as the Fort Griffin and Dodge City trail" (Austin American Statesman, Friday Jan 30, 1885). Texas representatives in the US Congress fashioned a bill that reserved a narrow, 15,000 acre swath of land as a National Cattle Trail.

The National Cattle Trail faced opposition from entities with even more power than the Texas cattle ranchers. though. Firstly, the railroads saw it as an impediment to their forward movement. Secondly, farmers -- who were unionized under the Grange -- believed the whole enterprise to be ludicrous. Sedentary ranchers, while empathetic, also did not see a benefit from a long and wide interstate trail, as they had begun preferring the non-Texas cattle stock that didn't carry "the fever." Kansans and Coloradans also didn't view a national cattle road as beneficial for them -- seeing that they'd give up land for the benefit of Texans. It didn't help matters any that newspaper reports referred to the cattle trail as being "six miles wide."

By 1886, the bill -- which had initially passed both the House and Senate -- was killed. A national cattle trail never materialized. It was an interesting idea, though.

The Dodge City Globe of May 1886 printed a resolution opposing the National Cattle Trail.