Great Western Trail

In 1874, cattle ranchers from the San Antonio, Texas, area began blazing a trail with large herds of Longhorn cattle through western Indian Territory to the railhead at Dodge City, Kansas, and to markets beyond in Canada and the Northwest Territories of America. It is estimated that more than 11,000,000 head of Longhorns passed over this trail. Its course was marked by a long sequence of depressions worn into the land by the millions of hooves that traveled it. The opening of the Cherokee Strip, located just over one mile north, to homesteading in 1893 imposed a barrier that ended the cattle drives.

Oklahoma · United States