Between 1867 and 1871, the Chisholm Trail wound northward about one half mile east of here, beaten hard by the hoofs of millions of Longhorns driven from as far as southern Texas. In one year alone, more than 600,000 cattle moved north on this trail to the railhead at Abilene for Eastern markets. When the Santa Fe reached Newton in 1871, Newton became the Cow Capital of the Midwest. About two miles east lay the Fort Smith, Ark. to California Road, sometimes called the Cherokee Trail, and about six miles east was an earlier branch that had been an old Indian trail. Beginning in early 1849, emigrants traveling to Oregon and California used it heavily, but it was abandoned during the Civil War. An early road from the valley of the Cottonwood to Pikes Peak crossed the Cherokee Trail about seven miles east and two miles south of here, then passed this point in a northwesterly direction. The Meridian Road, one and one-half miles west, was used by settlers of Oklahoma and Texas.