For decades, Dodge City's existence was tied to the railroad. When the first train arrived on the newly laid Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad tracks in September 1872, stacks of buffalo hides were already waiting to be shipped to eastern tanneries, and Dodge quickly became the buffalo capital of the world as hunters and hide and meat buyers flocked to the Kansas prairie. More than 850,000 hides were shipped out of Dodge City from 1872 to 1874, and in 1873 alone more than a million and a half pounds of buffalo meat, including ten railroad carloads of tongues, went east. Hunting pressure increased until the great buffalo herds could no longer sustain themselves; by 1879 the southern herd was depleted, and by 1883 the northern herd had disappeared. As buffalo shipments declined, cattle became Dodge City's primary rail commodity. Texas ranchers drove longhorns north to Kansas, where a branch of the Chisholm Trail and later the Western Trail met the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in Dodge City. The first Texas herds arrived in 1875, several hundred thousand cattle passed through town the next year, and during the following four years more than a million cattle passed through Dodge, bringing fame to the town as the Cowboy Capital and Queen of the Cowtowns. That cattle era lasted only ten years before a tick borne disease carried by the longhorns led the Kansas Legislature to bar Texas herds from entering the state. At the same time, the region's agricultural industry developed with access to new markets served by the railroad. Throughout much of Dodge City's first century, the railroad remained one of the largest employers and a powerful political force. In 1897 the Santa Fe began building a new passenger depot, and in 1913 a new brick freight depot was built. The passenger depot housed a Harvey House hotel and newsstand, the El Vaquero restaurant, and railroad offices; the restaurant remained open until 1948. Before Amtrak was created in 1971, numerous passenger trains served Dodge City, including the Santa Fe's Chief, Super Chief, and El Capitan, while freight traffic continued to carry much of the region's grain. As technology reduced railroad employment, personnel moved from the passenger depot into smaller quarters. In 1996 the company transferred ownership of the depot to the community, and restoration of the historic structure began in 2000.