Cattle Trail to Kansas (Chisolm Trail) 1866-1887 - Seguin, Texas - Wagon Roads and Trails on Waymarking.com

This red granite boulder commemorates the Cattle Trail to Kansas (Chisolm Trail) 1866-1887. Seguin was one of the main starting terminus locales for the trail moving Texas Longhorn beef cattle from Seguin and other ranch towns south along the cattle trail north to the end Kansas rail terminus at Abilene and towns further west. More information on the trail can be found at the Texas Time Travel website on the Chisolm Trial - - Link :

"By the end of the Civil War, Texas hadn’t much left to offer a newly united country…except BEEF! Historians have long debated aspects of the Chisholm Trail’s history, including the exact route and even its name. Although a number of cattle drive routes existed in 19th century America, none have penetrated the heart of popular imagination like the Chisholm Trail, especially in Texas.

As early as the 1840s, Texas cattlemen searched out profitable markets for their longhorns, a hardy breed of livestock descended from Spanish Andalusian cattle brought over by 16th century explorers, missionaries, and ranchers. But options for transporting the cattle were few. The solution lay north, where railroads could carry livestock to meat packing centers and customers throughout the populated east and far west. Enter Joseph G. McCoy from Illinois, who convinced the powers-that-be at the Kansas Pacific Railway company to allow him to build a cattle-shipping terminal in Abilene, Kansas.

The new route cattle drivers used to push the longhorn to Kansas shipping points became known as the Chisholm Trail, named for Jesse Chisholm, a Scot-Cherokee trader who had established the heart of the route while transporting his trade goods to Native American camps, and it eventually inspired the link between the great movement of longhorns from South Texas to central Kansas to the Chisholm name. Before the Chisholm was shut down in the late 1880s (by a combination of fences and a Texas fever quarantine) the trail accommodated more than five million cattle and more than a million wild mustangs, considered the largest human-driven animal migration in history."

The text of the marker reads:
"Cattle Trail
to
Kansas
1866 (picture of the head of a Longhorn) 1887

Dedicated to the Memory of
and in Tribute to the Pioneer
Trail Drivers of
Seguin and Guadeloupe Co."

Text of brass dedication plaque:

"City of Seguin
Roger W. Moore, Mayor
Aldermen
H. F. Bargfrede        Herman Kunkel
Ellen Bryan       Earl R. Martin
Louis Elley        A. J. Traeger
H. A. Ernst        Roy Voyges

Mrs. Bettie Harrington,        Secretary
R.J. Burges, Jr.       Treasurer
Max Bergfeld       Marshall
Arno Breustedt        Tax Ass. & Collector
O. E. Threlkeld       Attorney"

Road of Trail Name: Chisolm Trail State: Texas County: Guadeloupe Historical Significance: Five million beef cattle and one million mustang horses were moved along the trail to Kansas and packing plants and markets further east. It helped spur the growth of both Texas and Kansas. Years in use: 21 - 1866 to 1887 How you discovered it: I found the marker by accident. I was waymarking the town of Seguin and came across the marker in the park. It actually spurred an interest to research further as I knew of the trail, just not familiar with it as I live much further east in Kansas. Website Explination: see long description - http://texastimetravel.com/node/28751 is one website with a good explanation. Why?: To move cattle and horses north to the railroads. The animals were in Texas - the cattle cars and rails were in Kansas. The trail was the way to get the two to meet. It was strictly a cattle trail moving animals north and what remained of wages back south. It was not a stage road. Directions: western portion of Central park - River, Austin, Donegan, and Nolte Streets in Seguin, Texas. Book on Wagon Road or Trial: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/30/2021 BuckeyeFinnigan visited it 03/09/2019 Jffok visited it 08/02/2018 WayBetterFinder visited it

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