In 1874, Ed Jones and Joe Plummer laid out this 168 mile trail from Mobeetie, Texas, to Dodge City, Kansas, first as a freight route for hauling buffalo hides bought from buffalo hunters in the Texas Panhandle to profitable markets in Dodge City. On return trips, ammunition, food, and other supplies were carried back to replenish buffalo hunters and ranches in No Man's Land and the Texas Panhandle. After buffalo were no longer present in great numbers, the trail was later used to drive large herds of cattle from ranches in No Man's Land and Texas to market in Dodge City, where the beeves were loaded onto rail lines for eastern markets until about 1888, when railroads reached the southwest plains of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.