85R18742 BPG-D
By: Anderson of McLennan H.R. No. 1087
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, The year 2017 marks the 150th anniversary of the
Chisholm Trail, the major cattle-drive route from Texas to Kansas
that was used from 1867 to 1884; and
WHEREAS, In the mid-1800s, Texas was home to millions of
longhorn cattle, many of them roaming freely on sparsely populated
rangeland; there was a growing demand for beef in other parts of the
United States, but Texans lacked an easy means of getting the cattle
to market because rail routes between the Lone Star State and the
eastern United States had yet to be established; early attempts to
drive longhorns to Missouri and Kansas were halted when those
states closed their borders to the cattle to prevent transmission
of a deadly livestock disease, though the Texas cattle were later
allowed to traverse a less-populated part of Kansas; and
WHEREAS, In 1867, Illinois entrepreneur Joseph G. McCoy
solved the dilemma by persuading the Kansas Pacific Railway to lay a
spur to the small town of Abilene, Kansas, where he built a hotel,
stockyard, office, and bank; he advertised the availability of the
railhead throughout Texas, and O. W. Wheeler and his partners drove
the first 2,400 steers to Abilene from San Antonio in 1867,
traveling north through Texas and across the Indian Territory that
later became the state of Oklahoma; and
WHEREAS, Some 35,000 cattle were shipped through Abilene in
the first year and the total doubled annually until 1871, reaching a
peak of 600,000; the popular route from Texas was originally known
by such names as the Kansas Trail, the Abilene Trail, or McCoy's
Trail; the name Chisholm Trail was initially used only for the
section north of the Red River, but it was soon applied to the
entire path from the Rio Grande to Abilene and, later, to other
towns in Kansas; and
WHEREAS, Typically beginning in the early spring, the cattle
drives traveled north along the trail, taking three to four months
to reach Kansas; the herds moved at a pace of 10 to 12 miles a day,
guided by a crew that was often made up of a dozen or more people,
including a trail boss, cowboys, and a chuck wagon cook; a day on
the trail could contain the excitement and danger of stampedes and
river crossings as well as many hours of hard and dusty work that
was a good deal less dramatic; and
WHEREAS, The trail ultimately moved more than five million
cattle and one million mustangs, playing a crucial role in reviving
the Texas economy after the Civil War; the expansion of the
railroads, the growing settlement of the Plains, and the
establishment of new livestock quarantines brought an end to the
cattle drives in the mid-1880s, but during its years of operation,
the Chisholm Trail gained a special place in Western lore, and it
remains a source of fascination today; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas
Legislature hereby commemorate the 150th anniversary of the
Chisholm Trail.