Going Up the Chisholm Trail: Across the Brazos at Waco - Waco, TX
N 31° 33.730 W 097° 07.583
14R E 677823 N 3493429
A large gray granite memorial marker to the trail drivers and cowboys who moved cattle from Texas ranch land to Kansas cattle cars for shipment to the East coast by driving the cattle herds along the Chisholm Trail the from 1867 to 1884.
Waymark Code: WMZQB9
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/21/2018
Views: 5
The face of the memorial:
"To those riders who passed this way ... their memories, honored in stone but written in our hearts" is inscribed at the top of the large rectangular gray granite polished stone. In the center is an artistic image of cattle moving forward with a suspension bridge behind them and the date 1876 above the bridge. Arched over the top and under the bottom of the image ion the cattle crossing is large print reading "Going Up The Chisholm Trail."
The apparent title of the work is written below the image stating:
"Across the Brazos at Waco"
below which is the dedication stating:
"Dedicated by the McLennan County Historical Commission October 23, 2010"
The back of the memorial:
In the middle of the back of this memorial marker is an image of a cowboy on a horse riding along side a group of cattle. Below this image is text that reads:
"Donated by the Joe H. Phipps Family"
The Chisholm Trail was one of four major trails on which Texas cattle were taken to other states and distributed by train to the more population-dense areas of the United States. The Chisholm Trail began as a trade route that Jesse Chisholm marked off on his sundry goods he would haul by wagons across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. He traded with the native Indians as well was the European settlers who began spreading across middle America in the 1800s.
However, after the Civil War, Texas was in need of to expand its trade with other states to generate its economy. With all the wild cattle that had been ranging free during the Civil War, ranchers began herding up the stray beeves and driving them by the thousands northward to where the railroad stations could transport the cows to Eastern markets. The demand for meat was high in the eastern US, and the supply of cattle was abundant in Texas, so large herds of cattle could be driven northward to the train stations at a good profit. The first cattle drives began in 1867 and continued until 1884. By then, barbed wire fences began sectioning off the open prairie lands, plus conflicts with farmers, Indians, and bans on cattle drives due to the threat of tick-born diseases essentially closed off the trails. It was from these cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail that the legendary cowboy became became fixed into the public image we have today.
From "The Historical Marker Database" on Going Up the Chisholm Trail:
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