What's the longest-running cattle drive in America?
But there's a group of stubborn men and women in Wyoming who every spring push thousands of cows along the same 70-mile route their ancestors pioneered 125 years ago. This throwback to the Old West is called the Green River Drift, and it's the longest-running cattle drive left in America.
How long does it take to drive a cattle on the drift?
Albert Sommers: So it-- it takes about 13 days from when we start to when we get up there where we wanna be. We travel up to about 60 to 70 miles. Albert Sommers is one of 11 ranchers who work together to drive more than 7,000 head of cattle on the Green River Drift.
What is the significance of the cattle drive?
The cattle drive is an enduring symbol of the American West. The image of tough cowboys pushing huge herds of cows across the open range is stamped on our imaginations.
What is the Old West cattle drive?
Bill Whitaker saddles up for one of the last enduring symbols of the Old West, a Wyoming cattle drive that travels the same route pioneered 125 years ago. Oct 17, 2021 "On the Road with Steve Hartman: Home for the...
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What was the longest cattle drive in history?
But there's a group of stubborn men and women in Wyoming who every spring push thousands of cows along the same 70-mile route their ancestors pioneered 125 years ago. This throwback to the Old West is called the Green River Drift, and it's the longest-running cattle drive left in America.
How much did a cowboy make on a cattle drive?
about $25 to $40 a monthThe average cowboy in the West made about $25 to $40 a month. In addition to herding cattle, they also helped care for horses, repaired fences and buildings, worked cattle drives and in some cases helped establish frontier towns.
Where is the longest running cattle drive?
It is 4 a.m. and 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker is preparing for a horseback ride on Wyoming's Green River Drift, the longest running cattle drive in the United States.
How many miles a day did a cattle drive make?
Most drives lasted 3-5 months depending on the distance they needed to travel and delays they experienced along the way. A typical drive could cover 15-25 miles per day. Although it was important to arrive at their destination on time, the cattle needed time to rest and graze.
How many men served on a cattle drive?
There were nine or 10 wranglers and drovers – sometimes called "thirty-dollar men" – per crew. The wrangler managed the herd of spare horses, known as the remuda, made up of eight or 10 horses for each man. The remaining drovers were appointed to their posts along the line of cattle in the drive.
What ended the cattle drives?
Bitter range wars erupted when cattle ranchers, sheep ranchers, and farmers fenced in their land using barbed wire. The romantic era of the long drive and the cowboy came to an end when two harsh winters in 1885-1886 and 1886-1887, followed by two dry summers, killed 80 to 90 percent of the cattle on the Plains.
What were the 4 major cattle trails?
The Great Western Cattle Trail was used during the late 19th century for movement of cattle and horses to markets in eastern and northern states. It is also known as the Western Trail, Fort Griffin Trail, Dodge City Trail, Northern Trail and Texas Trail.
When was the last big cattle drive?
Australia's last great cattle drive started in May 1988 with 1,200 head of cattle on a journey from Newcastle Waters in the Northern Territory and ended 2,000 km to the east in Longreach, Queensland the following September.
How long was the cattle drive in Lonesome Dove?
Enter the handsome Jake Spoon, another ex-Ranger, who persuades the restless Call to drive a herd of three thousand cattle northward twelve hundred miles to the grassy valley of Montana's Yellowstone River, nearly to the Canadian border. The long drive and its adventures consume most of Lonesome Dove.
What did cowboys eat on the range?
The staples. Along the trail, the staples of a cowboy diet consisted of beans, hard biscuits, dried meat, dried fruit, and coffee. Occasionally, a type of bread known as pan de campo (or “camp bread”), which was cooked on a skillet was also available.
What was a cattle drive like in the Old West?
The men drove and grazed the cattle most of the day, herding them by relays at night. Ten or twelve miles was considered a good day's drive, as the cattle had to thrive on the route. They ate grass; the men had bread, meat, beans with bacon, and coffee. Wages were about $40 a month, paid when the herd were sold.
What was a ramrod on a cattle drive?
Ranch or trail foreman, usually the first or second person in charge. The person responsible for getting the work done.
How much did a cowboy make in 1883?
On average, they received $30 a month, or about a dollar a day.
How much did a cowboy make in 1870?
Working up to 20 hours a day, cowboys drove the animals from one watering place to the next. They had to guard against predators (two- and four-footed), straying cattle, and stampedes at night. For his hard and dirty work the typical cowboy earned between $25 and $40 a month.
What did cowboys eat during cattle drives?
Along the trail, cowboys ate meals consisting of beef, beans, biscuits, dried fruit and coffee. But as cattle drives increased in the 1860s cooks found it harder and harder to feed the 10 to 20 men who tended the cattle.
How much was a bit worth in western days?
In early America, “bit” was used for some Spanish and Mexican coins that circulated and were worth one-eighth of a peso, or about 12 and one-half cents.
How far did cattle drive?
While cattle could be driven as far as 25 miles (40 km) in a single day, they would lose so much weight that they would be hard to sell when they reached the end of the trail. Usually they were taken shorter distances each day, allowed periods to rest and graze both at midday and at night. On average, a herd could maintain a healthy weight moving about 15 miles (24 km) per day. Such a pace meant that it would take as long as two months to travel from a home ranch to a railhead. The Chisholm Trail, for example, was 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long.
How many cattle did the cattle drive?
The typical drive comprised 1,500–2,500 head of cattle. The typical outfit consisted of a boss, (perhaps the owner), from ten to fifteen hands, each of whom had a string of from five to ten horses; a horse wrangler who handled the horses; and a cook, who drove the chuck wagon. The wagon carried the bedrolls; tents were considered excess luxury. The men drove and grazed the cattle most of the day, herding them by relays at night. Ten or twelve miles was considered a good day's drive, as the cattle had to thrive on the route. They ate grass; the men had bread, meat, beans with bacon, and coffee. Wages were about $40 a month, paid when the herd were sold.
What was the purpose of cattle drives?
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 frontier.
Why did the Chisholm Trail decrease in importance after 1871?
The Chisholm Trail decreased in importance after 1871 when, as a result of the westward advance of settlement, Abilene lost its preeminence as a shipping point for Texas cattle. Dodge City, Kansas became the chief shipping point for another trail farther west, crossing the Red River at Red River Station, Texas.
How long was the Chisholm Trail?
The Chisholm Trail, for example, was 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long. On average, a single herd of cattle on a long drive (for example, Texas to Kansas railheads) numbered about 3,000 head. To herd the cattle, a crew of at least 10 cowboys was needed, with three horses per cowboy.
What were the cattle towns in the 1880s?
The cattle towns flourished between 1866 and 1890 as railroads reached towns suitable for gathering and shipping cattle. The first was Abilene, Kansas. Other towns in Kansas, including Wichita and Dodge City, succeeded Abilene or shared its patronage by riders fresh off the long trail. In the 1880s Dodge City boasted of being the "cowboy capital of the world." Communities in other states, including Ogallala, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Miles City, Montana; and Medora, North Dakota, served the trade as well. Amarillo, Fort Worth, and Wichita Falls, all in Texas; Prescott, Arizona, Greeley, Colorado, and Las Vegas, New Mexico were regionally important.
What towns were in the Texas cattle drive?
In the 1840s, cattle drives expanded northward into Missouri. The towns of Sedalia, Baxter Springs, Springfield, and St. Louis became principal markets. The Shawnee Trail, also known as the Texas Road or Texas trail, played a significant role in Texas as early as the 1840s.
Why are horseback cattle drives run off the range?
But by the 21st century, with western states growing and changing fast, most horseback cattle drives have been run off the range by suburban sprawl, government regulation, lower beef consumption and the return of protected predators.
Why did Clint Gilchrist kill off the vast majority of the cattle herds that were here?
Clint Gilchrist: And it killed off the vast majority of the cattle herds that were here, because they weren't prepared for a bad winter. Nobody had prepared for a bad winter.
Where is Albert Sommers ranch?
Those 11 ranches all lie in Wyoming's Green River Valley, south of Jackson Hole. Here, the Wyoming range is to the west, the wind river range is to the east, the valley between is part bone-dry high desert and verdant river drainage where Native Americans once hunted buffalo. Today, the Green River runs through Albert Sommers' ranch.
When did the drift start?
When the Drift began 125 years ago , there were no regulations, no subdivisions, just wide open range.
Who homesteaded the ranch in 1889?
Jeannie Lockwood: This was my granddad's ranch. He homesteaded this in 1889.
Does Love sustain the Green River drift?
Love might sustain the Green River Drift, but it was born in crisis.
Overview
Movement of cattle
Cattle drives represented a compromise between the desire to get cattle to market as quickly as possible and the need to maintain the animals at a marketable weight. While cattle could be driven as far as 25 miles (40 km) in a single day, they would lose so much weight that they would be hard to sell when they reached the end of the trail. Usually they were taken shorter distances each day, allowed periods to rest and graze both at midday and at night. On average, a herd coul…
Origins
Long-distance cattle driving was traditional in Mexico, California and Texas, and horse herds were sometimes similarly driven. The Spaniards had established the ranching industry in the New World, and began driving herds northward from Mexico beginning in the 1540s. Small Spanish settlements in Texas derived much of their revenue from horses and cattle driven into Louisiana, though su…
Cattle drive era
The first large-scale effort to drive cattle from Texas to the nearest railhead for shipment to Chicago occurred in 1866, when many Texas ranchers banded together to drive their cattle to the closest point that railroad tracks reached, which at that time was Sedalia, Missouri. However, farmers in eastern Kansas, still concerned that transient animals would trample crops and transmit cattle fever to local cattle, formed groups that threatened to beat or shoot cattlemen fo…
Chisholm Trail
The Chisholm Trail was the most important route for cattle drives leading north from the vicinity of Ft. Worth, Texas, across Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to the railhead at Abilene. It was about 520 miles long and generally followed the line of the ninety-eighth meridian, but never had an exact location, as different drives took somewhat different paths. With six states enacting laws in the first half of 1867 against trailing cattle north, Texas cattlemen realized the need for a new trail th…
Cattle towns
The cattle towns flourished between 1866 and 1890 as railroads reached towns suitable for gathering and shipping cattle. The first was Abilene, Kansas. Other towns in Kansas, including Wichita and Dodge City, succeeded Abilene or shared its patronage by riders fresh off the long trail. In the 1880s Dodge City boasted of being the "cowboy capital of the world." Communities in other states, includi…
End of the open range
Expansion of the cattle industry resulted in the need for additional open range. Thus many ranchers expanded into the northwest, where there were still large tracts of unsettled grassland. Texas cattle were herded north, into the Rocky Mountains and Dakotas. In 1866, Nelson Story used the Bozeman Trail to successfully drive about 1000 head of Longhorn into the Gallatin Valley of Mont…
Modern cattle drives
Smaller cattle drives continued at least into the 1940s, as ranchers, prior to the development of the modern cattle truck, still needed to herd cattle to local railheads for transport to stockyards and packing plants. Today, cattle drives are primarily used to round up cattle within the boundaries of a ranch and to move them from one pasture to another, a process that generally lasts at most a fe…