Objectives

1
Objectives

• Explain how the cattle industry began.
• Describe the life of a cowhand on the trail.
• Discuss the myth of the Wild West.
• Identify reasons for the end of the cattle boom.

2
Terms and People

• open range unfenced land
• cattle drive the herding and moving of cattle
  over long distances
• vaquero Spanish word for cowhand, or cowboy
• cow town settlement at the end of a cattle
  trail
• cattle kingdom region dominated by the cattle
  industry and its ranches, trails, and cow towns

3
What factors led to boom and bust in the cattle
industry?
With mining towns growing and railroad companies
racing to build track, another boom swept across
the West.
the cattle boom
4
For years, herds of wild cattle roamed the open
range of Texas.
Beef was in demand in eastern cities and western
boomtowns.
But ranchers had no way to move the longhorns to
distant markets.
5
That changed, however, as railroads crossed the
Plains.
Trains could take the cattle to market. All the
ranchers had to do was get the cattle to the
trains.
cattle
cattle
cattle
6
Texas ranchers began to round up the cattle in
the 1860s.
They hired skilled cowhands to move the herds
north, along trails leading to rail lines.
Some of the rail lines were as far away as 1,000
miles, and the long cattle drives lasted two to
three months.
7
Well-worn cattle trails led from Texas to rail
lines in Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.
8
Cowhands on the trail could spend up to 18 hours
a day leading herds across rivers, pulling cattle
from swamps, fighting grass fires, or chasing off
thieves.
Lightning could cause a stampede, sending cattle
in all directions.
Yet despite the hard and dangerous work, cowhands
earned less than 1 a day.
9
Cowhands owed much to Spanish and Mexican
vaqueros.

• how to ride, rope, and brand
• Mexican spurs and chaps
• broad-brimmed hats
• lassos

10
Cattle drives ended at cow towns, where tired and
hungry cowhands could find restaurants, hotels,
dance halls, and saloons.
Abilene, Kansas, was the first of many cow towns
to spring up at the end of the cattle trails.
Cow town
cattle
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The rough-and-tumble life in cow towns did much
to promote the myth of the Wild West.

• Place of gun fights, adventure, and opportunity
• Reflected in shows by William Buffalo Bill Cody

Wild West
12
Some of the myths of the Wild West are based on
fact. Cowhands did help shape the West. Yet the
real West was much more than the land of
gunslingers portrayed in frontier shows.

• Ranchers
• Farmers
• Miners
• Pioneer families
• Native Americans

Real West
13
Ranchers in the cattle kingdom made huge profits
during the boom years.
Profits
New breeds of cattle brought in even more money,
and small ranches soon grew into huge cattle
companies.
14
The cattle kingdom, however, would soon go from
boom to bust.
At the same time, farmers began to fence their
lands, preventing cattle from freely grazing.
Ranchers now had to buy feed for their herds.
By the 1880s, millions of cattle roamed the
range, along with sheepmore animals than the
land could support.
15
An economic depression made matters worse.
Demand for beef
People struggling to find jobs in cities could no
longer afford expensive beef.
In time, the railroads expanded, moving closer to
the ranches. The days of the long cattle drives
were over.
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