Jesse Chisholm had used an old military trail to haul freight through the Territory. It paralleled a natural route -- the crosstimbers -- a natural dividing line defined by a long and narrow forest of blackjack and post oak trees between eastern hills and western plains. There was plenty of grass and a multitude of streams along the way, which most years could keep the cattle well-fed and watered. All the drovers had to do was follow the deepset wagon tracks north along Chisholm's Trail.

Abilene was the primary destination at first, drawing herds from 1867 through 1871 -- that community's peak years as a cattle town.

Waterville, a small Kansas town farther north of Abilene, attracted herds in 1868 and 1869. Junction City, farther east of Abilene, also served as a destination in 1869 and 1870. How these two communities managed to get the Texas cattle through the quarantine lines, I have not yet learned -- but I imagine it was done much the same way Abilene got the herds: Careful manipulation and generous payoffs.

Meanwhile, Chetopa and Coffeyville, two communities in the far southeast corner of Kansas near Baxter Springs, saw the cattle trade pick up in 1869. Chetopa saw its peak cattle years 1869-1874, while Coffeyville's peak years ended in 1873. From the period of 1870 to 1879, according to one source, Baxter Springs continued to receive Texas cattle herds on the Shawnee Trail -- however, the museum in Baxter Springs indicates 1872 was the last good year of the cattle drives there.

Salina and Solomon, rivals with Abilene for the cattle trade, also served as cattle destinations in 1869 through 1871, then the trade moved on.

The year 1871 was the top of the cattle drive era, at least as far as the number of communities was concerned. In addition to Baxter Springs, Abilene, Chetopa, Coffeyville, Salina and Solomon, the cattle herds targeted Newton, Ellsworth, Brookville and Great Bend. Newton and Brookville enjoyed the cattle boom only that one year.

Ellsworth and Great Bend continued through the year 1875, and Wichita was active as a cattle town primarily from 1872 through 1876.

Then the herds moved farther west. Down in Indian Territory, herds broke off from the well-traveled Chisholm Trail and marched northeast to Dodge City. The "Queen of the Cowtowns" reigned from 1877 through the cattle driving era, in 1885. Cattlemen began using the Great Western Trail, up through the western part of Indian Territory, in an almost direct route north to Dodge City.

But the Chisholm Trail's days didn't end in 1876 as the last great herds arrived in Wichita. Four years later, in 1880, Caldwell became a rip-snorting cowtown and continued to serve that purpose through 1885.

In some cases, the townsfolk asked them to move on (them danged cowboys was too rowdy, y'see, not to mention the gamblers and prostitutes), in other cases the Texas-fever legislation kept barring passage, and meanwhile the railroads kept pushing west and, eventually, south. A lot more on the history of Kansas and the cattle towns can be found at the University of Kansas.

Please note: The dates listed above for the 15 primary communities involved in the cattle trade in Kansas are NOT the only years cattle drives arrived there. They are only the PEAK years. Nor are the 15 the only Kansas communities that saw cattle herds. Almost any place where the trains stopped, and the quarantines didn't prevent passage, served as a loading site for longhorn cattle. There was money to be made, and it certainly exchanged hands.

By 1876, when Dodge City was the leading cowtown, activity along the Chisholm Trail had slowed to a trickle in favor of the Great Western Trail. And by 1889, the dust along the old Chisholm Trail lay for the most part undisturbed by longhorn hoof. But in that all too brief period in history, between 5 million and 10 million head of cattle (depending on sources) had moved up the trail.

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