1866 Cattle Drives. The great cattle drives occurred between 1866 and BACKGROUND

Transcription

1 1866 Cattle Drives BACKGROUND The great cattle drives occurred between 1866 and By the end of the Civil War, the cattle supply east of the Mississippi River had been exhausted. In Texas, because of the war and a shortage of labor, cattle roamed freely. Texans returning home from the war decided to round up a herd and drive it to a market, where they could get $40 to $60 a head. Texans had their choice of several trails and markets. Cattle buyer Joseph McCoy brought cattle up the Chisholm Trail. He built cattle pens and a hotel at the railhead in Abilene, Kansas. Then McCoy had surveyors find a route south to Texas. For 220 miles, the route followed Jesse Chisholm s road to his trading post on the Canadian River. Other Texans drove their herds up the Shawnee Trail to Kansas City or Sedalia, Missouri. The cattle were shipped from there to Chicago meatpackers. Cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving blazed the Goodnight-Loving Trail from Texas northwest to the Colorado gold mines. A typical herd consisted of 3,000 cattle and 11 individuals. Trail bosses in their 20s usually made about $100 a month. Other cowboys, called waddies, ranged in age from 12 to 18 years old and earned between $25 and $40 a month. Cooks could make $75 a month. Wranglers in charge of the remuda, or stable of extra horses, were paid about $50 a month. The trip to market could take six weeks. The cattle were driven only 10 to 15 miles a day so they could graze and remain fat. Cattle drives ended with the fencing of land and the quarantines placed on Texas cattle by several states, including Kansas and Missouri. Longhorns carried a tick that caused Texas fever or Spanish fever, which affected domestic cattle along the trails. Texas cattlemen then began to round up their cattle, take them to the nearest railhead, and send them to market by rail

2 IN FACT The Cowboy Hall of Fame opened in Oklahoma City in The museum overlooks the Chisholm Trail. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame is located in Forth Worth, Texas. VOCABULARY Introduce or review the following words: stew, unbranded, roamed, dogies, advice, further, breathing, restless, reservation, destroys, folks, stampedes, stampeding, surrounded, exchanged, wrist, upstream, wounds, partner, acres, graze. Before students begin to read, you may want to pronounce the names of people and places in the mini-book. RESOURCES Books: Wrango by Brian Burk (Harcourt, 1999) The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic, 1999) Get Along, Little Dogies: The Chisholm Trail Diary of Hallie Lou Wells: South Texas 1878 by Lisa Walker Rogers (Texas Tech University Press, 2001) about a typical day in the life of a cowboy on a cattle drive. They should learn the day s routine, what cowboys wore and ate, and what surprises and disasters could occur. Suggest they write journal entries to depict a day or more in the life of a cowboy. Where Does Your Hamburger Come From? Cattle drives ended in the 1880s with the fencing of land along the trails and state quarantines placed on Texas cattle. Pose the following question for pairs of students to research: How does beef get to your table today? Around the Campfire: After a long day on the trail, cowboys would gather around the campfire and entertain each other with stories and songs. Hold a campfire gathering in your classroom. Encourage students to contribute their own stories and songs about a cowboy s life. They may also bring in existing songs and stories they have found. Internet: Trail Drives of the Old West ACTIVITIES On the Trail: Have groups of students research cattle trails such as the Chisholm, Shawnee, or Western Trails. Ask them to use their research to collaborate on a mini-book about that trail. A Day in the Life of a Cowboy: Cattle driving was anything but glamorous for a cowboy. He (or she) endured heat, dust, rain, stampedes, and boredom for little pay. (Girls disguised themselves as boys to join cattle drives.) Challenge students to find out 62

3 63 We stop at noon for lunch. Keep your eyes open for a good place to stop. This smells like chicken stew. Where s the beef? We re lucky to have any meat to put into that stew at all. 1 I hate this! All I m doing is breathing dust and baby-sitting slow cows. 3 Come on, little dogies. You re worth only $2 here in Texas. But I can get $40 for you in the North. How do you think those drags will do? They ve never been on a drive before. They ll either love it or hate it. I love it! I ll be riding point before you know it!

4 Cattle moves only 10 to 15 miles a day on the trail.they ll need water every day, and there s no water between the Concho and the Pecos Rivers. It s 80 miles between those rivers. I ve ridden and fought all over that land. I know where the water is. I can make it to Colorado. The cattle will have to drink their fill here. We won t see the Pecos River for another 80 miles. 2 4 If you let me, I ll go with you, Goodnight. We re going to lose them! Those are the sweetest words I ve ever heard in my life, Loving. I ll need you and your men. Most of all, I ll need your advice. Not if I can help it! 64

5 65 We re trying to teach the Navajo to farm, but it s just not working out. The army burns our villages, destroys our crops and animals, and marches us here. Don t move, Oliver. That s a rattlesnake. They expect us to be happy and grow corn? Well, at least they ll have some beef to eat. Things can t get much worse than this. 5 7 People say the army paid you in gold for your cows. What happened to you? Where s Oliver? Army says it ll buy the first herd that gets to Fort Sumner in August. A lot of folks are buying up cattle to take to New Mexico. You can t believe everything you hear. He s by the river. He s hurt bad.

6 Be sure you and Bill ride at night. I don t want the Comanche stampeding you. I thought for sure you were dead, Oliver! I feel like I almost am. Don t worry. We ll get to Fort Sumner one way or the other. 6 8 We ll try to find a place at the river to hold them off! I understand your ranch covers more than a million acres, Mr. Goodnight. I m right behind you! We have about 100,000 heads of cattle to graze. And write this down Oliver Loving taught me almost everything I know about cattle. 66