Trailing Them North

Follow the Western Cattle Trail from Bandera, Texas, to Miles City, Montana.

- By Johnny D. Boggs

Blame it on Babesia bigemina.

That little parasitic protozoa found a home in ticks, which found a home on Texas longhorn cattle, until the bloodsuckers jumped to new digs on domestic cattle in present-day Oklahoma, Kansas, or Missouri and pretty much brought an end to the Shawnee and Chisholm cattle trails to Sedalia, Baxter Springs, Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, etc.

Kansas beef and Babesia bigemina did not mix. The cattle became feverish, lost weight, turned anemic, passed blood in their urine, and died. Sick of Texans, Kansans established quarantine lines that prohibited herding Texas longhorns through civilized country.

Undeterred, Texas trail bosses simply moved west of the quarantine line-until Kansas eventually banned all Texas herds in 1885– said goodbye to the Chisholm Trail and inaugurated the Western Trail.

The eastern (Chisholm) trail crossed the Red River at Spanish Fort or Red River Station in Montague County. Some Texans continued that route into Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), then turned on the Dodge City Cut-off to avoid the quarantine line and angry Kansans. But soon a new trail emerged.

Texas