Chisholm Trail

Former cattle trail that ran for some 2,400 km/1,500 mi from southern Texas to Kansas. It was named after the trader Jesse Chisholm, who developed cattle routes in Oklahoma and Kansas, and had its heyday from 1866 to the early 1880s. Altogether, it is estimated that 1.5 million head of cattle were driven north on the trail to the railheads of the Santa Fe Railroad and the Kansas Pacific at Newton and Abilene respectively, from where they were transported to the Chicago stockyards for slaughter.

The Chisholm Trail was never a single fixed route, but incorporated hundreds of bypasses and feeder trails, some of which were based on old buffalo migration routes. In the south, the trail began at Brownsville, Texas, and proceeded north through Kingville, through or near San Antonio, across the Colorado River at Austin, across the Brazos River near Waco, across the Trinity River at Fort Worth, and across the Red River into Oklahoma,

where it passed through Duncan, Rush Springs, and Enid. As railway lines were gradually extended further south, the trail's importance declined.