Lone Star Heritage

Subject: The Chisholm Trail Through North Texas Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:24 am

A year or so ago on the Dallas Historical Society Message Board, an enlightening thread was begun concerning the Chisholm Trail. I thought it might be good to pick it up once again here, as the DHS board seems to be moving slowly at present and searching for the old posts through Google can be challenging (for me Wink

)

According to 'Fort Worth & Tarrant County: A Historical Guide' (1984), purists like to call the branch which passed through Fort Worth the Eastern or McCoy Trail, while it joined the Chisholm Trail proper on the northern side of the Red River. From what I've read in another source (J. Marvin Hunter's, 'The Trail Drivers of Texas') the cowboys didn't much care and usually called the whole thing up from Nueces to Red, 'The Chisholm.'

In any event, the Fort Worth guidebook (cited above) states that, from that 'Gateway to the West,' the "cattle were driven north on Rusk Street, now Commerce Street, through the city, down the bluff and across the Trinity River. Herds rested in the broad valley below the bluff before continuing the long drive north." (page 12)

Please find below the link to a map which some already may be familiar with:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txwise/outlaw~1.gif

This map traces the Chisholm Trail (or its southern branch) as it courses through eastern Wise County .... seemingly in the vicinity of the Waggoner and Halsell Ranches. What I would like to have a better picture of is the route the Trail took from where the cattle rested in the Trinity River Valley -- just north of Fort Worth -- to the extension which is illustrate on the map above.

Thanks in advance for any information,

Holly

PS. Here is another neat site!

http://www.redriverhistorian.com/travelchisholm.html
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Cowboys Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:45 am

I'll betcha these fellahs could give us some answers about the old trail days and even throw in a story or two to boot Surprised

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txtarran/photos/mccarty.htm

They are beauties and I hope that their submitter is able to learn more about the subjects and her family.
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Joined : 13 Mar 2008 Posts : 23

I'm confused here. There were cattle trails other than the Chisholm Trail that came up from Texas? It's funny you never hear about the other ones. scratch

Subject: Re: The Chisholm Trail Through North Texas Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:28 pm

Gaston, I by no means am an expert on the subject of cattle trails (rather, a very interested but kind of lazy learner cat

), but here is a map which appears to highlight the routes pretty clearly:

http://www.thechisholmtrail.com/map1.htm

As can be seen there, our earliest and eastern-most trail was the Shawnee, which was active before the Civil War but declined in use due to 'Texas fever' .... and was surpassed by the western trails during the Reconstruction period:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/ays2.html

Here are some other links:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~itgenweb/itprojects/roads/cattle-trails.htm

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_texas/texas_frontier_forts_2.jpg

(post-Shawnee with view of the numerous, defensive forts of West Texas)

... and a relics of the Trail ~ found and perhaps, hinting of treasures yet-to-be-uncovered:

http://www.capitaldetectors.com/page3.html
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Joined : 13 Mar 2008 Posts : 23

Cool. Thank ya ma'am. Eye find myself diseducated. jocolor

Joined : 13 Mar 2008 Posts : 23

okydoky cowgirls now tell me how brands were part of these cattle trails.. Then we'll rodeo. Very Happy

Subject: Re: The Chisholm Trail Through North Texas Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:21 pm

I think this is what you're looking for.

http://www.barbwiremuseum.com/cattlebrandhistory.htm

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/auc1.html

Joined : 13 Mar 2008 Posts : 23

I'll be good from now on. Promise. Smile

If I tell you i've got an uncle in Texas named Bubba will you go easy on me? All I know about the old trails is from tv weterns and a few movies. All they ever talk about is the Chisholm. I'm moving into that stage of life when nothing fells better than a fat armchair so maybe I'll go back to school on alot of things. What should I read:)

Last edited by Cedar on Sun Apr 06, 2008 6:26 pm; edited 2 times in total

Gaston, as mentioned previously, I am familiar only with the bare essentials of the old cattle trails' history .... though bearing a strong interest in the stories of those who rode them ~ sung their ways along them flower

But you might begin with 'The Cowboys,' which is a pictorial volume in Time-Life's Old West series (published during the early 1970s). It is a pleasant and informative read.

From there, I suggest moving onto Wayne Gard's 'The Chisholm Trail' (University of Oklahoma, 1954 and subsequent editions). The blurb on the back cover of the paperback edition provides a little peak:

"For more than a dozen tempestuous years, beginning in 1867, the Chisholm Trail was the cowhand's road to high adventure .... The account which appears in these pages reveals the courage, daring and enterprise of the cattle owners and their cowboys, whose experiences on the Chisholm Trail helped to establish firmly the cattleman's place in the heroic history of western expansion." (drawn from the author's Forward)

Of Wayne Gard and this study, the publishers wrote:

"Wayne Gard, former editorial writer for the 'Dallas Morning News' and student of all things Western, is the author of numerous other books. For 'The Chisholm Trail,' Gard interviewed surviving trail drivers and visited communities along the route in search of public records, manuscripts, archives, and newspaper files which would authenticate his information."

As an historical novel of the cowboys and their brief yet eternal way of life, I appreciate 'The Trail To Ogallala,' by Benjamin Capps (1964).

Happy reading! study

_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Re: The Chisholm Trail Through North Texas Sun Apr 06, 2008 4:14 pm

Joined : 13 Mar 2008 Posts : 23

Yipeepihiyay, I'll dust off mu librareeee card and read those with ma boots on or should i look on amizoniaaaay? Graceeus ma'am. Very Happy