"Eric, get John and Graham to come over here for a minute!"
"Has Polly escaped again?"
"Damn right she did!"
"Did Graham tell Terry some stupid story he picked up in the saloon and then forgot to look after the cattle again?
"Yeah, Eric!"
"Sometimes I ask myself, who's the real bovine? Graham or Polly?!"
About four weeks ago we shared with you a little bit about the cowboys, today we're talking about their antagonists. No, not the minions of some random villain found in a saloon, but rather: Cattle.
Since the early 19th century, the cuddly four-legged creatures that kept the cowboys in work had to be driven from their grazing grounds in the West to the railway terminus or to the cattle markets, sometimes over considerable distances.
In the beginning, these cattle drives were small, but over the decades they grew into large herds that had to be moved from point A to point B. The era of the 'cattle drive' began in the middle of the 19th century. The most famous route at the time was the Chisholm Trail, a 520-mile-long journey between Fort Worth in Texas and Abilene in Kansas, the railway terminus.
A drive consisted of about 1500 and 2500 cattle and covered about 10 to 12 miles a day.
A few years after the trails were established, the previous trailheads lost their relevance and moved further and further west. After Abilene, Dodge City was now the new hub. Eventually, railway expansion made the drives obsolete; today, smaller cattle drive events are still held occasionally.
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