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- The Shawnee-Arbuckle Cattle Trail 1867-1870
The Shawnee-Arbuckle Cattle Trail 1867-1870
In June of 1867, Joseph McCoy, an experienced cattle shipper and promoter, arrived in Kansas from Illinois to explore the possibility of creating a cattle railhead for Texas herds. He eventually chose a small settlement of a few inhabitants along the tracks of the Union Pacific Eastern Division Railroad because "the country was entirely unsettled, well-watered, excellent grass, and nearly the entire area of country was adapted to holding cattle." (McCoy, 50) The rest of the story is will-known history. Abilene became a terminus for Texas longhorns and their drovers on the Chisholm Trail.
Contemporary cattle-trail maps show the route to Abilene coming out of South Texas, crossing the Red River at Red River Station between Texas and Indian Territory and continuing northward from there to the famous cattle town. "Not entirely true," write Gary and Margaret Kraisinger. In this book they show that another, more easterly route was used to trail Texas herds to Abilene, a pathway that does not appear on today's Chisolm Trail maps. With the aid of archival maps and early cowboys' recollections, the Kraisingers prove that the way to Abilene from 1867 through 1870 went by way of Fort Arbuckle in Indian Territory. The route seen on present-day cattle-trail maps via Red River Station did not materialize until later.