The End of the Cattle Drive (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

[Music] in 1865 the civil war was over and ex-confederates began returning home to a financially devastated state texas was in financial ruin but it had one thing longhorn cattle millions of them for four years during the war longhorns had roamed the free range and multiplied unbranded and unclaimed they were there for the taking however they were almost worthless as low as two dollars per head while texas was awash with cattle the eastern states was starving for the taste of beef at one point being willing to pay as much as 30 to 35 dollars per head this led to the creation of the cattle drives there was basically four cattle trails coming out of south texas the earliest was the shawnee trail it's the green line on the right it was started back before the civil war running from south texas through eastern oklahoma indian territory into missouri branching off to st louis sedalia and kansas city but by 1854 the shawnee trail was almost closed the railroad had reached out further and so had civilization farmers were beginning to turn around cattle drives long horns were carrying ticks that they were immune to but the farm cattle wasn't with pressure from the homesteaders the missouri legislature had outlawed texas longhorns in the state basically closing the shawnee trail for good it'll be 1866 one year after the war when ranchers charles goodnight and oliver loving established the good night loving trail leaving texas and traveling west some 75 miles to the pecos river in order to skirt around most of the comanche territory and then north along the pecos to fort sumner new mexico in order to sell beef to the army the trail will later extend to denver and then on to cheyenne wyoming also in 1866 a man by the name of jesse chisholm created the chisholm trail the ranchers will gather up longhorns all the way from the rio grande in bramble and travel to wichita abilene and ellsworth kansas where the rail head had reached by 1871 the chisholm trail began slowing down because homesteaders was flooding into eastern kansas and begin fencing off trails used by cattle drives by 1872 the atchison topeka and santa fe railroad had reached as far west as dodge city kansas for the next two years the rail head at dodge will ship some 850 000 buffalo hides back east they also ship thousands of pounds of buffalo bones to make fertilizer out of now by 1874 the buffalo was gone and so was the business that kept dodge city alive also in 1874 the military had placed the comanche and kiowa on reservations following the red river war opening the way for cattle drovers like captain john t lattle to open up a new trail from texas through western oklahoma to dodge city kansas that same year captain lytle had drove some 3500 head up what will become the great western cattle trail sometimes called the dodge city trail within five years the great western trail will become the most used cattle trail in history as the others were shut down from a growing population and cattle fencing the great western trail will continue until around the late 1880s in the last stages it will continue through dodge to ogallala nebraska over a period of 10 years millions of head of beef and 1 million horses will be driven up the trail the texas needed to get their cattle to market so getting them to the rail heads when they could be shipped back east was their only way to start a cattle drive each rancher would drive their head to a starting point each ranger had their own brand on their cattle to separate them from others then another brand would be placed on all the cattle to show that they belong to this particular cattle drive the most important decision made by ranchers was who will they hire to be the trail boss the man responsible for seeing that their herd gets to the real head with as little loss as possible he would document each rancher's brand and the number of cows that he owned the trail boss had complete authority what he said went no exceptions he was sometimes paid as much as a hundred and twenty five dollars per month depending on the size of the hurt he would usually set the direction each day that the herd was to travel the next highest paid member of the drive was the cook sometimes making as much as 60 dollars per month the cook had strict rules around the chuck wagon he was last to go to bed and first her rise after breakfast he would drive the wagon ahead of the herd and prepare the meals sometimes the cook would have a helper usually a youngster that they call little mary now this is a little mary whose name has been lost to the ages his job was to fetch water and firewood for the cook and on longer drives he might even drive a wagon of supplies little mary would also pick up stray calves in his wagon notice the little calf in the middle of the wagon between their bed roads in the front and the saddle in the back during the earlier drives they would either kill calves for food to make stew or simply leave them behind but they soon learned they brought too high of a price to eat or to leave now the next hired was the point men in large herds there might be two point writers they were usually the most experienced men on the drive the point man rides up front so that he can point the cattle and keep them going in the right direction they had the best jobs of all the drovers the swing riders worked in pairs one on one side of the herd and one on the other they ride closely on each side of the herd about a third way back from the point riders everyone was responsible together in strays about two-thirds of the way back on the herd is the flank riders their job was to keep the cattle bunched together as much as possible at the back of the herd is the drag riders their job was to keep the herd moving and pushing the slower animals forward theirs was the worst job on the drive from all the dust that the herd stirred up usually the most inexperienced drovers worked the drag the drovers were paid around 35 dollars per month drives usually begin in the spring after roundup when grass is readily available and before cold weather set in usually a crew consisted of 8 to 14 men each drover would pick his own horses from the remuda that he alone will ride during the drive each men would have from three to sometimes as high as 10 re-mounts each they would change horses sometimes as much as six times a day their horses were continuously moving chasing breakaway stairs and keeping the herd moving forward the drovers never was allowed to ride their own horses the horses belong to the drive that way the drovers cannot quit the drive and ride off on a horse that didn't belong to them they hung horse thieves the remuda would sometimes have 50 to 100 horses usually the wrangler who took care of the horses was a young drover whose job it was to see that they were fed and doctored when needed the wrangler was paid around 25 dollars per month and he had sometimes helped the cook when needed the removal would travel behind the cook's wagon or where it was convenient for the drovers to change mounts notice how close the remote is to the chuck wagon in this picture now this is a map basically of the great western cattle trail drives would form as far south as brownville san antone caryville mason lampasus and san angelo the trail left texas and crossed into indian territory now western oklahoma to dodge city kansas later it will extend to ogallala nebraska now other trails later will travel as far north as wyoming and montana supplying horses and cattle to remote ranches modern day highway 283 loosely follows the cattle trail through texas oklahoma and into kansas the first obstacle facing the drive was crossing the red river from texas into oklahoma at dawn's crossing this is dawn's store where the drawers could buy goods and chuck wagons could resupply for the trail ahead across indian territory this is the only building still standing at dong's crossing the river crossing was only a half a mile from the store now this is modern day riders crossing the red river in one year five drovers lost their lives crossing here the trail from texas to dodge was approximately 600 miles cattle could travel as much as 10 to 15 miles per day trail bosses soon learned the faster you push the cattle the more weight they lost and the less money they would bring some driver would arrive in dodge after two months on the trail if everything went perfect which it seldom did sometimes a herd would strain out as four as two miles depending on its size drovers had three meals a day with lots of coffee they eat beans and stew and biscuits they had sometimes stopped their herd at noon and let the cattle graze while the drovers eat their noon meal after around 14 hours in the saddle and after settling the herd down at night they would gather around the chuck wagon for the final meal of the day the chuck wagon carried in the back rolled up bedrolls for the cowboys as you can see in this picture they usually slip in a circle around the campfire now it's time to ride night hurt each drover would have to pull a two-hour shift two at a time one would ride clockwise around a herd while the other would ride counterclockwise they would often sing quietly to the cattle to help keep them calm night time was the most dangerous time for drovers stampedes were more likely at night during bad weather everybody slept ready to go at a moment's notice lightning caused more stampedes than any other thing but any noise could do the trick even after the plane's indians were no longer a threat sometimes a small group of hungry indians would stop the herd and demand a few head it was up to the trail boss to negotiate a deal keeping in mind that if they were dissatisfied they could easily sneak in at night and stampede their herd causing more loss than the indians were asking for to start with many cowboys were lost trying to stop stampedes riding full speed alongside hundreds of longhorns when your horse stumbles could be fatal the only way to stop a stampede was to get ahead of the lead steers and turn the herd to the right until they begin running in a circle when the front of the herd runs into the slower moving rear of the herd they eventually slowed down and stopped during dry weather thirsty cows could smell water from a long distance the danger was that they would start running towards water and run off of steep banks bunch up in the river and drowned in one of their earlier drives cattle bunched up in a swollen river were 800 head were lost out of 3 000. lead steers were very important sometimes there would be just one and sometimes there'd be several leaders would come to the front of the herd by themselves automatically one such lead steer was charles goodnight's old blue and blue was a natural-born leader good night used old blue on eight different cattle drives it's been said that old blue would not take part in a stampede that he had just simply stand aside until it was over and then he'd take his place at the head of the herd good night place this bell around old blue's neck so that the rest of the herd would know where he was at and feel more contented it's been said that old blue would not bed down with the rest of the herd but would hang around the chuck wagon at night so that they would feed him biscuits and scraps the cowboys were quite fond of blue and after some 20 years goodnight retired him to green grass at his j.a ranch in the palo duro canyon in texas according to drover nat love who was one of the most respected drovers of the old west stated in his memoirs that a braver truer set of men never lived or a tighter buns formed than during a cattle drive they was always ready to share a blanket or rations with anyone less fortunate although black cowboys face the same discrimination while traveling through towns as other blacks they receive respect and equal treatment on the range and on ranges many ex-slaves headed west to join cattle drives some 35 000 drovers that pushed cattle up trails for some 12 years or more from 5 000 to 8 000 of them were black cowboys some estimates go as high as one out of every four were black ex-slaves after crossing the red river the next major obstacle was the canadian river here is the trail boss negotiating with the indians after crossing the canadian after the canadian the trail boss would ride out looking for streams of water like this one outside of fargo oklahoma that herds would bed down close to at night and cowboys would sometimes look for an opportunity to bathe the last major crossing was the cimarron river close to the oklahoma kansas border by then the herd was less than a hundred miles from dodge city the end of the trail when the herd reached dodge they were placed in holden pens on the east side of town waiting to be loaded into box cars to be shipped back east after selling the herd the trail boss would then pay the cowboys with money in their pockets and ready to celebrate most would first buy new clothes then shave and wait their turn to take a bath they might even take a room at the dodge house where doc holliday had an office or the great western hotel so that they could sleep on a real bed instead of the ground next came the gambling and drinking dodge had its share of saloons but the long branch was the best known not all drovers got into gun fights and ended up in jail but some did not all fights were over women here's a dodge city working girl black eye and all that got into a fight with another working girl over a cowboy after a few days rest and recuperation it was time to saddle up and take the long trail home back to texas by 1885 most of the cattle drives were coming to a close mostly because of the encroachment of bob wire [Music] you

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 57,723

Rating: 4.9505582 out of 5

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Id: YVY6nbXdeFw

Length: 19min 55sec (1195 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021