What were cattle drives?
The famous cattle drives ran south to north and occurred along the famous cattle trails in a relatively short time period from 1866 – 1884. The trails shifted westward as the population grew. The invention of barbed wire ended cattle drives. The Longhorn cattle, originating in Spain, thrived in South Texas. There was the added bonus that they were hearty enough to walk to market. There were four (4) principal trails, and they all originated in the triangle formed by San Antonio, Laredo and Corpus Christi. The first was the Sedalia Trail and ran east of Austin, through Ft. Worth, Denison, southeast corner of OK, through Ft. Smith ARK and to Sedalia MO. The second and most famous was the Chisholm Trail to Abilene which was approximately the alignment of I-35 today. The third was the Dodge City Trail which ran through Concho and Ft. Griffin to Dodge City. The fourth was the Goodnight-Loving Trail which ran west from Concho to the Pecos River, up the Pecos, through New Mexico and Colorado
