CATTLE DRIVES AND THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD

The map below shows the original route of the first Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869, and the major wagon train routes. By 1870 there was already an extensive network ( bottom). The oldest major cattle drive route was the Sedalia-Baxter Springs Trail, also called the Shawnee Trail or Texas Road, which was in use by 1845. The Goodnight-Loving and Chisholm Trails came into use during the mid1860s and the Western Trail in 1874. Railways, cattle trails and wagon train routes all served to bring large numbers of horses of English extraction into formerly Spanish-Mexican territory.