Cattle Drives in The United States

Cattle Drives In The United States

Cattle drives were a major economic activity in the American west, particularly between 1866 and 1886, when 20 million cattle were herded from Texas to railheads in Kansas for shipments to stockyards in Chicago and points east. The long distances covered, the need for periodic rests by riders and animals, and the establishment of railheads led to the development of "cow towns" across the American West. Because of extensive treatment of cattle drives in fiction and film, the cowboy became the worldwide iconic image of the American. Cattle drives still occur in the American west and in Australia.

Read more about Cattle Drives In The United States:  Origins, Movement of Cattle, Texas Roots, Shawnee Trail, Cattle Drive Era, Chisholm Trail, Cattle Towns, End of The Open Range, Modern Cattle Drives, Cowboy Culture, Image and Memory, Cattle Drives On Television and Film

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    “... it is probable that in a fit of generosity the men of the United States would have enfranchised its women en masse; and the government now staggering under the ballots of ignorant, irresponsible men, must have gone down under the additional burden of the votes which would have been thrown upon it, by millions of ignorant, irresponsible women.”
    —Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)

    “During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
    —Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    “A man shall perhaps rush by and trample down plants as high as his head, and cannot be said to know that they exist, though he may have cut many tons of them, littered his stables with them, and fed them to his cattle for years. Yet, if he ever favorably attends to them, he may be overcome by their beauty.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “He turns agen and drives the noisy crowd
    And beats the dogs in noises loud.
    He drives away and beats them every one,
    And then they loose them all and set them on.
    He falls as dead and kicked by boys and men,
    Then starts and grins and drives the crowd agen;
    Till kicked and torn and beaten out he lies
    And leaves his hold and cackles, groans, and dies.”
    —John Clare (1793–1864)

    “The genius of any slave system is found in the dynamics which isolate slaves from each other, obscure the reality of a common condition, and make united rebellion against the oppressor inconceivable.”
    —Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)

    “[N]o combination of dictator countries of Europe and Asia will halt us in the path we see ahead for ourselves and for democracy.... The people of the United States ... reject the doctrine of appeasement.”
    —Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)