How long did it take a cattle drive to go from Texas to the cowtowns?
Jennifer Miller
Davenport, Florida
The “Long Drive,” which initially went up to Abilene, Kansas, was about 800 miles and could take as long as two months. It was about the same time and distance from the Nueces River, down near San Antonio, Texas, to Sedalia, Missouri. Trail drovers didn’t push the cows hard, as they’d lose too much weight.
By 1871, railroads had pushed farther west across Kansas, and the arrival of farmers caused drovers to keep moving west. By 1874, towns like Dodge City, Kansas, emerged as the major cowtowns.
Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and vice president of the Wild West History Association. His latest book is Arizona Outlaws and Lawmen; The History Press, 2015. If you have a question, write: Ask the Marshall, P.O. Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327 or email him at marshall.trimble@scottsdalecc.edu.
Related Articles
-
Nelson Story was already a wealthy man in 1866. He’d moved to Montana a few…
-
The historians in this anthology are vigorously reexamining the role women played in settling the…
-
Although there were cattle drives prior to the Civil War their heyday came in the…
