Chisholm Trail Archives - Fort Worth Stockyards

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…

via: USA TODAY

Longhorn cattle still roam the streets of this historic cow town.

Twice a day, grizzled men wearing authentic-looking hats, scarves and gloves climb atop of horses and slowly walk a herd of about 20 cattle – horns long enough to lance a human heart from 4 feet away – three blocks from the animals' night pens to the day pens, then back again.

It's a touristy spectacle in the city's historic stockyards sponsored by the visitor's bureau and aimed at the busloads of out-of-towners and gaggles of gawking grade-school students on field trips. But it's also a nod to the city's 19-century importance as a major cattle depot, from where thousands of head of cattle each year would slog north to Kansas City through the Chisholm Trail and onto plates in restaurants in Chicago, Boston and Washington.

Chisholm Trail

Longhorn and the Chisholm Trail

Fort Worth Evolving from Cow Town to Hipster City