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The at 150

TEXAS’ EPIC, SELF-DEFINING ROAD TRIP

ver wanted to throw a birthday party for cowboys? This is your year. But be sure to have a cake big enough for 150 candles. That’s because this is the 150th Eanniversary, more or less, of the Chisholm Trail. I qualify that because a lot remains uncertain about this iconic trail that bridged pastures with railroads. Few agree on where it started or stopped, for instance, or where the name came from, or even if the trail was in Texas at all (see the “The Never-Ending Chisholm Debate” on Page 49). But still, this huge Texas exodus of cattle in the 1860s and 1870s changed the Lone Star State for good. And gave birth to the icon to boot. It’s a birthday that makes for a particularly rewarding trip, too.

By ROBERT REID

Photo: © Kenny Braun 42 texashighways.com JULY 2017 43 The TRAIL’S ROOTS FTER THE CIVIL WAR, Texas was a here, Eastern markets reached via railroads A rough place. The economy was busted, paid 10 times that amount. droughts loomed, the railroads hadn’t yet But how to get ’em there? Enter the cowboy. connected the whole state, and returning Trail riders faced brutal conditions on the Confederate soldiers couldn’t find work. But two- to three-month drive: forging rivers, there was no shortage of one thing: Long- searching for drinking water, reckoning horns, which outnumbered Texans six to with thunderclaps that sent cattle into stam- one. “There seemed no end to these scattered pedes, and paying tolls (or worse) from wait- brutes,” wrote Wayne Gard in The Chisholm ing or Osage in . Trail in 1954. While a Longhorn yielded $4 Finding the best way north also proved difficult. Before the war, a hand- ful of ranchers had led herds to New Orleans and even St. Louis on foot. But once tick-carrying Longhorns introduced less hardy cattle to “Texas fever” (sometimes called “Mexican fe- ver” in Texas), gangs of Missou- rians met drovers in firefights, killing cattle (and a fair share of cowhands). The new migration target shifted west—to slightly more welcoming Kansas. In the spring of 1867, Joseph McCoy, an Illinois entrepreneur, set up a train depot in Abilene, Kansas. And the industry boomed, as doc- umented in many films like Red River from 1948. Over the next 15 to 20 years, drovers led millions of Long- horns to Kansas, which built up baron empires in Texas and fu- eled the adventurous spirit of younger cowhands getting paid a mere $30 to $50 a month.

WHERE to GO FOLLOWING THE CHISHOLM TRAIL TODAY not only changes how you see Texas’ past, but also its present. Its legacy is found in high-heel cowboy boots, our love for all things beef, ex-cowtowns that rose from the dusty paths, and the that ultimately closed off most of the open range for good. Driving the Chisholm Trail is more than just a ride up Interstate-35. The Chisholm Trail 150 website, chisholmtrail150.org, also lists many options and events this year (including some in and Kansas). Meanwhile, here are the five biggest stop-offs—ordered south to north—that can be experienced any time:

Photo by Kevin Stillman 44 texashighways.com Photo: © Kenny Braun JULY 2017 45 “There was nothing romantic about trail- MEET A CATTLE BARON ing herds,” Kinnan cautions. “Movies made To read more Kingsville it romantic.” about Robert Reid’s ichard King, the man behind the You can learn how the road to any great travels along the R 825,000-acre King Ranch near Kings- steakhouse begins at a ranch like this. Tours historic Chisholm ville, deserves his own Hollywood film. explore the property, while museum exhibits Trail, pick up the “He was an amazingly tenacious individ- touch on King and the Chisholm Trail. Visi- July 2017 issue of ual,” says Bob Kinnan, the area manager of tors can also meet some Longhorns along with a Oklahoma Today the Santa Gertrudis Heritage Society. “How special breed developed here on the ranch in the magazine. he survived so long and established a ranch early decades of the 1900s: the Santa Gertrudis, Call 800-777-1793; this size is a remarkable thing. South Texas the first beef breed formed in the United States. oklahomatoday.com. was a desperate part of the world at the time.” Afterward, drive two hours north on “blue Born in 1825 in New York, King escaped an highway backroads” to Goliad State Park unlikely childhood as an indentured servant. and Historic Site to visit Texas’ first mega- As a stowaway, he convinced the ship cap- ranch at the Mission Espíritu Santo. Opened tain to teach him how to captain boats, then in 1749, the mission—run by Native Amer- went on to pilot boats for the U.S. Army in the icans mostly—had 40,000 head of cattle by Fort Worth Stock- and Mexican wars before lighting the time of American independence. yards cattle drovers out south of the border to bring back cheap David Mangold cattle from Mexico to build his own ranch, (opening spread), founded in 1853. (While there, he hired ap- RELIVE THE José Hernandez proximately a hundred Mexican vaqueros, CHISHOLM TRAIL (previous spread), called Los Kineños, to teach him the ropes of Cuero and Rob Little (left). ranching.) The result is Texas’ largest ranch, o museum in Texas better explains ABOVE: King Ranch now bigger than Rhode Island. N the reality of riding the Chisholm in Kingsville and the Mission Espíritu Santo in Goliad This huge Texas exodus of cattle in the 1860s and 1870s (far right). changed the Lone Star State for good.

Photo by Kevin Stillman 46 texashighways.com Photos: © Kenny Braun (left), Will van Overbeek (King Ranch), © Joel Salcido (Mission Espíritu Santo) JULY 2017 47 Trail than Cuero’s Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum. The award-winning museum, open since 2013, is set up near drovers’ set- off points that actually pre-date the trail it- The NEVER-ENDING self. The site acknowledges the Chisholm CHISHOLM DEBATE Trail’s murky origins with displays on Gua- dalupe Valley ranching roots that harken HISHOLM TRAIL BUFFS frequently clash over the back to Spanish times. Other features in- trail’s history, beginning with a basic question of whether Cit ever really was in Texas. The hubbub peaked in 2001, when clude a replica and a fun Lead a Trail Drive interactive exhibit where visi- reaction to a Texas Historical Commission brochure attracted tors pick cowboys for all of the drive’s key po- the attention of a New York Times reporter. In an article, Fort sitions, including the lowly wranglers in the Worth historian Doug Harman, citing a half-dozen sources, dusty back. said “The Texas men who went on the cattle drives all called it the Chisholm Trail,” while Pat Halpin, president of the Old Trail Drivers Association of Texas at the time, claimed “it never en- WALK THE HISTORIC tered Texas at all.” COW TOLL BRIDGE Whatever it’s called in Texas, it is certain that the Chisholm Waco Trail was the main means for Texan cowboys leading cattle to uddy, unruly red waters of the steeply Kansan train depots in the late 1860s and 1870s. And it’s sure that Mbanked Brazos River—named by the there was no single trail to take—particularly in Texas. Spanish for brazos de dios (or arms of God)—made “Trails originated wherever a herd was shaped up and ended for one of the biggest obstacles during drives wherever a market was found,” TC Richardson wrote in Cattle to the Red River. Then Waco changed things. Trails of Texas in 1937. That means Texas’ contribution to the In 1870, the Waco Suspension Bridge opened, “Chisholm Trail” looked more like tree roots than a lone trunk. making crossing a breeze—well, for a price. “We are trying to side step, but not ignore, any of the academic Today the river’s changed. In Waco, you controversies and use the anniversary to celebrate the impact can kayak or canoe the Brazos, or read up on of the cattle trails, using Chisholm as the vehicle,” says Brad- its last wild days in John Graves’ iconic Good- ford Patterson, community heritage development director at the bye to a River, which describes his experience Texas Historical Commission. “The Chisholm arguably has had of making a Thoreau-like canoe journey “be- the most influence of any single trail, and it is the most recogniz- fore they drown it” by dams. able to the public due to influence of popular culture.” Of course you must walk the bridge. It’s a Debate also hovers over the question of who “Chisholm” was. Waco favorite activity, now punctuated by a The trail is generally believed to be named for , riverside series of sculptures of drovers and a helpful trailblazer living in Indian Territory, a Scottish/Cher- Longhorns—created by Cleburne artist Rob- okee Tennessean who died before knowing his name would go ert Summers in 2014—that spill toward it down in history. (A trapper named intro- from a riverside park. duced the trail to him.) Others claim a drover from Cuero named In fall, Baylor University’s Mayborn Thornton should get the credit, while some figure it was New Museum hosts a lecture series that includes Mexico rancher John Chisum. trail lore. And who led all these Longhorns? A mix of (mostly) men took off with cattle herds— CLOCKWISE Confederate vets, yes, but also Mexican va- CATCH A FROM TOP queros, Native Americans, and African Fort Worth LEFT: Cuero’s Americans. Women, too: The Texas Histori- ort Worth is a popular stop on the Chisholm Trail cal Commission’s excellent new “time travel” F Chisholm Trail today (a locally pro- Heritage Muse- app on the Chisholm Trail tells stories of his- duced musical Spirit of the Trail has been um, Waco’s Sus- torical figures such as Amanda Burks, the created for the anniversary) and one of the pension Bridge, “Queen of the Old Trail Drivers,” who led a easiest places to see the stars of the historic Robert Sum- herd on the trail in 1871 before spending a trail: the Longhorns themselves. A herd of mers’ sculpture half-century ranching in Texas. nearly two dozen makes twice daily “cattle Branding the (For more on the Chisholm Trail, visit drives” in the famed Fort Worth Stockyards Brazos in Waco. texastravelapp.com.)

Photo by Kevin Stillman 48 texashighways.com Photo: © Kenny Braun, © Joel Salcido (Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum) JULY 2017 49 Photo: © Kenny Braun WHERE to HANG YOUR HAT To get in the yesteryear spirit, be sure to look for historic stop-offs for accommodation.

San Antonio NEAR THE ALAMO, the lasted through the Chisholm era and first opened its doors (and bar) to bigwigs in 1859. Over the years it’s welcomed William Sherman and—as a common tale goes—Theodore Roosevelt as he recruited his Rough Riders. The arrival of the railway to in 1877 began with a toast from Texas Governor R.H. Hubbard here. Many eras have passed since the Victorian heyday, but the Menger’s held its historic charm—including a richly paneled bar from 1859. Call 210-223-4361; mengerhotel.com

Austin DRESSED UP LIKE A SUPER-SIZE, Richardson-Roman- esque mansion, The Driskill was a latecomer to the trail and al- ways more a cattle baron than cowhand type of place. Built in 1885 by Jesse Driskill, a cattle rancher made rich from drives National Historic District (at 11:30 a.m. and heading north, it remains an Austin icon. Lots of fun stuff is going 4 p.m.), with a “cow camp” to learn more cow- on here and nearby, as it’s set amidst Sixth Street’s music scene. boy tricks on weekends at 1:30 p.m. Mexican cowboy who so influenced the grazing in the Andalusian plains of Spain During SXSW, singers play a series of shows in the hotel. Call Kristin Jaworski, who’s from Arizona and American version. In fact, “cowboy” derives before being introduced to the Southwest in 512-439-1234; driskillhotel.com grew up with horses and cattle, has been the PREVIOUS SPREAD: directly from the word vaquero. “They’d dress the 1500s. Some say that conquistador Fran- trail boss here since 2002. She says she “ab- Longhorn cattle a little flashier,” Kristin notes. “They taught cisco Vázquez de Coronado first introduced Salado solutely” considers herself a cowboy and has drives take place a lot about how to be a cowboy.” Longhorns to present-day Texas in the 1540s. THE SIMPLER INN is an original, a stop- a lot to say about her Longhorns. twice daily on Ex- “They’re definitely a breed apart,” says off on the Chisholm Trail that’s survived as a hotel/lounge since “They’re majestic creatures. Real popular change Avenue in the Will Cradduck, herd manager here since it opened in 1861. Its hotel is presently closed for renovation (due show breed these days,” she says. Picking a Fort Worth Stock- RUB HORNS WITH 2008. “They have a reputation for being to open next year), but the restaurant reopened last month. Call favorite is harder for her. yards National His- TEXAS’ OFFICIAL HERD mean. Actually they’re just intelligent. Be- 254-947-5111; stagecoachsalado.com “Well, Rojo is my buddy,” she explains. “I toric District. CLOCK- Fort Griffin fore the trail, they’d be hunted for beef—and like the underdog too, Matterhorn, who’s new WISE FROM LEFT: ot all Longhorns are the same. And the learned quick to run and hide.” Fort Worth and trying so hard to fit in. And Norman’s ac- Wildcatter Ranch in Nones at Fort Griffin, a state historic site As trailing cattle shifted their route west in PROPPED IN THE HEART of Fort Worth’s cowtown core, the tually my steer. He grew up in the petting zoo, Graham, temporary outside of Albany on the former Great West- the 1870s, Fort Griffin—which also turns 150 Stockyards Hotel—open since 1907—is the quintessential cat- and one day they were going to sell him. ‘Too stop sign used during ern Trail—a westerly rival to the Chisholm— this year—became a popular hub for north- tle-traveler stop. From front-facing rooms, you can peek over the big,’ they said. I said, ‘Like hell you’re selling cattle drives in the boasts Texas’ most special group. bound drovers. passing Longhorns twice daily, then saunter over to Billy Bob’s— him.’ I fed him from the bottle when he was Stockyards, Long- With Longhorns dying off in the 1900s, Out here it’s still more open-range than the world’s biggest honky tonk—to try your luck at a mechanical young. He’s mine now and spoiled rotten.” horn at Fort Griffin, folklorist and author J. Frank Dobie assem- what you’ll find on I-35 to the east. Try to bull. Try to stay in the corner Bonnie & Clyde Suite, with actual Kristin ensures all parts of the famed cat- Fort Griffin ruins, bled a herd in 1941 as the state’s official herd, time a visit with the fort’s regular dark-sky artifacts of the couple who stayed here in 1933 (Bonnie’s revolver tle drive are accurate, down to the attire. and Stockyards Hotel which ended up here seven years later. (The viewings of the stars. The night sky really is cased on the wall). Fake bullet holes playfully puncture the “We make sure we’re not just the in Fort Worth. herd is now split among four state parks and pops out here, and telescopes reveal what lit wood shutters.Call 817-625-6427; stockyardshotel.com cowboy you see, a cowboy.” one state historic site.) Any day, you can come up all those campfire songs 150 years ago. To get on the range, Wildcatter Ranch—about 90 miles north- Part of that is respect of the vaquero, or see them and marvel at their horns and color west of town—is a luxury version of the ranch experience, with variations that link back to their Andalusian Robert Reid is National Geographic Traveler’s slick rooms (some with converted chuckwagon beds) and activ- homeland—yellow splashed with white dots, Digital Nomad and has been in travel publish- ities including 20 miles of horse trails and skeet shooting. Call black, and brown. ing for two decades. He grew up in Oklahoma 940-549-3500; wildcatterranch.com Fort Worth is one of the easiest places to see the stars of the historic Longhorns are historic cattle, generally and now lives in Portland, Oregon. Follow him trail—the Longhorns themselves. unchanged since their first incarnation on Instagram at @reidontravel.

52 texashighways.com Photos: © Kenny Braun JULY 2017 53