Key Issue 3 Flashcards
What was the “open range”?
Cattles’ weren’t kept in fenced areas and were free to roam.
What year did Texas rebel against Mexico?
1836
What did the Mexican rangers (who lived in Texas) do after Texas became independent?
Left Texas and left their cattle behind.
What happened in the 1850s?
Beef became popular in the east.
What year did the American Civil War break out?
1861
What year did the Texans get back from the Civil War and what was there economy like?
1865, their economy was ruined.
How many Longhorns were in Texas after the Texans got back from the Civil War?
About 5 million
Where were cattle worth money?
The North and East
What did Longhorns carry?
Texas fever
Who turned cowboys, on the long drive, away? and why?
Homesteaders and because their Longhorns carried Texas fever and it could be deadly to the homesteaders cattle.
What did the US Government begin doing in the 1860s?
Building the “trans-continental railroad”
What year was the Pacific Railways Act passed?
1862
Name 3 advantages of the Railway.
Easier travel.
Transport resources to the plains and west easily.
Refrigerated carriages for transporting meat.
What did Oliver Loving do in 1860?
Drove the first herd from Texas to Colorado.
How many cattle traveled along the long drive in 1871?
600,000
How long were the average trails?
Between 1200-1500 miles long
How far were cattle moved a day along the trails?
15 miles
Who founded Abilene?
Joseph McCoy
What was Abilene?
The first cow town
What trail did Texas reach Abilene via?
Chisholm trail
Who was John Iliff?
A powerful rancher.
What did the cowboys do in spring and autumn?
A rodeo, where they branded the calves
What was happening by the 1880s?
The cattle boom was ending
Name 6 reasons why the “open range” ended.
The east demanded higher quality beef.
Some stats, such as Kansas, started to ban cattle.
Herds over grazed, which led to cattle starving.
Harsh winter of 1886-7 (30% of cattle died)
Invention of barbed wire by Joseph Glidden in 1874
Cowboys went from having to take cattle on the long drive to having to fix fences.
