Old Chisholm Trail

From a site near here, 1800 Longhorns were moved out on April 1, 1866, on the first trail drive from this area to northern markets. Crockett Cardwell, owner of the cattle bed ground, had gathered the herd, and the trail boss was Thornton Chisholm, a native of DeWitt County. In 1865, Indian scout Jesse Chisholm had marked the upper trail from the North Canadian to the Arkansas River. The road here became a prong of the famous Chisholm Trail, going past Gonzales, San Marcos, Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown, Gatesville, Glen Rose, and Red River Station into Indian territory. The 30 men of this 1866 drive to St. Joseph, Mo., were gone 7 months and 10 days. The cook and many of the men made numerous later drives, but Thornton Chisholm died in 1868. In 1866, 260,000 cattle accumulated in Texas during 4 years of Civil War went up the trails, and from 1866 to 1895 at least 10,000,000 cattle were driven up the cattle trails by Texas cowboys, helping Texas recover from the war through sales in northern markets and to the U.S. Government to feed Indians on reservations or soldiers in forts.

Texas · United States