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The American cowboy’s story begins on the Chisholm Trail. The men of Texas served in the Confederate Army and left behind their small herds of longhorns. The unattended cattle grazed and multiplied. The men who were fortunate enough to return home after the war saw themselves now “cattle-poor” with too many cows and no where to sell them. Salt pork had been the main meat of soldiers and in the East, only small numbers of beef cows could be raised due to the landscape of the region.Didn’t catch that? This explains it. Jesse Chisholm had begin a trading post in Oklahoma and used a trail to bring in goods for sale.

Texas cattlemen decided that shipping their cows from Kansas to the East would be profitable and they began to use Chisholm’s trail from Texas to Kansas through The Native People’s lands. After the Civil War many former Confederates had lost their farms and livelihoods. Former Union soldiers sought new lives and adventures in the postwar economy. They went West and signed on with ranchers and cattlemen and learned the trade of cows. Riding rank horses, learning to dally and rope, brand and move the herd became their classroom. The Chisholm Trail was an adventure, a lifestyle and a legend all in one.