Great
Western Cattle Trail 1890's
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Artist: Barbara
Vaupel
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Sponsor: Sen. Robert M. Kerr
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Dedication: 2-09-00
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Size: 40" x 30"
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Type: Oil on Canvas
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Outer Senate Chamber
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Following the Civil War, Texas
found itself with many long horned cattle, but no markets.
The demand for beef in the Northeast was high. As the railhead
in Kansas moved further west, four major trails developed
from south to north. The last one formed was the Great
Western. It entered Oklahoma at Doan's Crossing south of
Altus and exited Oklahoma at the Kansas border northwest
of Buffalo, going on to Dodge City, Kansas. The painting
depicts cattle crossing the Canadian River near Camargo
in Dewey County. John Lytle blazed this new trail in 1874,
and through the 1880's and 1890's, over 300,000 head of
cattle, 7,000 horses and over 1,000 men moved north on
the Great Western each year. Since the Indian tribes, Apaches,
Kiowas and Comanches, as depicted, had their major source
of food, the buffalo, depleted, it became important that
they live on the cattle going north. It was common to negotiate
the number of beeves for the privilege of crossing their
lands and grazing on their grasses. As the railroad developed
through Texas and Oklahoma these cattle trails soon became
unnecessary.
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