The Chisholm Trail (1873)

The Chisholm Trail was a live stock trail that operated from 1867 to 1884. It provided the main route to get longhorn cattle from Texas to the east coast, where they were in high demand, via the Kansas Pacific Railway. During its brief existence, more than five million head of cattle and one million wild mustang horses were moved by the Chisholm Trail.

This map was created by georeferencing the map The Old Chisholm Cattle Trail with Subsidiary Trails in Texas 1873 (below), then digitizing individual trails. Trail names, starting, and ending locations (when available) can be found by hovering the cursor over trails.

Map by Ryan Rogers, 2016.