Texas History

Unit 9

Cattle Kingdoms and Cowboys

The Cattle Trail, 1905 courtesy, Library of Congress.

Spanish Beginnings

• 1500s: Spanish had ranches firmly established in Mexico

• 1700s: Cattle moved northward to support missions in Rio Grande & San Antonio River Valleys

• Good climate & water supply

Spanish Beginnings

• First Texas Ranchers: Tejanos who brought knowledge of ranching from Mexico

•Brands—marks that made it possible to determine who owned Texas cattle

The Texas Longhorns

• Strengths:

– Thrived on native grasses

– Could endure hot/cold

– Could eat prickly pear cactus and survive on little water

– Resistant to Texas Fever

The Texas Longhorns

•Texas cattle grew during the Civil War because Union blockades made it difficult to move cattle out of state

Driving Cattle to Market

· After the Civil War, growing cities in the East increased their demand for beef.· Texas ranchers began to drive herds of longhorns hundreds of miles north to the railroads running across the country, where they were sent to Chicago to be processed. The meat was then sent out on refrigerated (ICE) trains.

Texas Cattle Trails

The Cowhand’s Life

Cowhand – responsible for driving the cattle north to the railroads

• Cowhands learned their trade from Spanish vaqueros.

Cowhand’s Gear

chaps kept rider’slegs safe

lariat(leather rope)

used to lassorunaway cattle

Wide-brimmedhat

provided protectionfrom the sun

· Cowhands had to worry about stampedes, cattle thieves, and the dry, hot weather.

· Cow towns developed near the railroads, offering cowhands hotels, saloons, and restaurants.

Abilene, Kansas (late 1800’s)

Dodge City, Kansas, 1874

"Kansas has but one Dodge City, with a broad expanse of territory sufficiently vast for an empire; we have only room for one Dodge City; Dodge, a synonym for all that is wild, reckless, and violent; Hell on the Plains."

-- A Kansas Newspaper in the 1870's

Cattle Boom

· Cattle roamed free on the plains.

Cowboys at the end of an 1897 roundup in Ward County, Texas, pose with their herd of almost 2,000 cattle.

The spread of farming, as well as harsh weather, destroyed the cattle boom by 1887.

Hundreds of miles of barbed wire were strung across the state in the 1880s, forever changing the character of the frontier and bringing a measure of management to the cattle industry.

Cattle Kingdom

Ranches, Rangers, & Cowboys

Ranching in South Texas

•Cattle Kingdom—ranches on the open range from Texas to Canada

Ranching in South Texas

•King Ranch—very important South Texas ranch

King Ranch is located in Kennedy County

Ranching in South Texas

•More than one million acres at one time

•Presently 825,000 acres

•Larger than state of Rhode Island

Ranches in the Panhandle

• Removal of Indians opened up Panhandle to ranching

• Grass & flat open land good for cattle ranching

• Ogallala Aquifer provided water

Ranches in the Panhandle

•Farming in the Panhandle expanded after the appearance of windmills.

Windmill

Cowboy Culture

•Myth: cowboys lived fearless, happy, & worry free lives roaming through rugged but gorgeous landscapes

•Fact: faced many dangers, worked long hours, and received little pay

Once railroads ran throughout Texas, the cattle drives became unnecessary.

Ranchers could now ship their product directly from Texas towns and cities

Barbed Wire Closed the Open Range and helped “fence in” Cowboys