Much of Fort Worth, Texas’, early development and its nickname “Cowtown” can be attributed to its location on the Chisholm Trail. The post-Civil War trail was used to move cattle from southern Texas up to railheads in Kansas.
During the war, Texas ranchers had not been able to get their cattle to market. Because of the over supply, after the war, Texas ranchers were only receiving $4 per head for their cattle, while ranchers in the East were receiving $40 per head. In 1867, a fellow named Joseph McCoy built a stockyard in Abilene, Kansas, and urged the Texas ranchers to drive their Longhorn cattle to his yards. Once he purchased them, he would ship them East. In 1867 alone, he shipped 35,000 cattle East. Most of those ranchers driving their Longhorns to Kansas, stopped in Fort Worth.
As important as it was for Fort Worth’s development, the Chisholm Trail’s legend grew even greater in the stories that were told about it. Although I do appreciate history, as Jimmy Stewart said in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”