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Cattle Kingdom: This Rise and Fall of the Cattle Industry in Texas. 2/27/2012. Vocabulary. Open Range- large area flooded with roaming Cattle and Wild Mustangs. Hollywood Cowboys- typically White males who are strong, and always rides off into the sunset at the end.
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Cattle Kingdom: This Rise and Fall of the Cattle Industry in Texas 2/27/2012
Vocabulary • Open Range- large area flooded with roaming Cattle and Wild Mustangs. • Hollywood Cowboys- typically White males who are strong, and always rides off into the sunset at the end. • Cowgirls- there were many females who had this job, but it was mainly a male dominated job. • Barbed Wire- Closed the Open Range
How it all began • Cattle Ranching can be traced back to the time when Spain controlled Texas. • By the 1690s the Spanish had brought in over 25,000 Cattle into Texas. • Mexican-Americans known as Vaqueros were the first known Cowboys in Texas. • The Spanish established Ranches all along the Rio Grande.
King Ranch • The Open Range made it easier to roundup roaming Cattle and bring them into someone’s personal Ranch. • Nicknamed the “birthplace of American Ranching,” King Ranch became the largest ranch in SW Texas, with more than 15,000 acres of land for Cattle. • Southern Ranchers soon began to realize that Northern States would pay double for the beef they were selling down south.
Cowboys • Cowhands or Cowboys were hired to drive the Cattle up North. • Life for the Cowboys was not easy, they spent majority of their time on the road, and was paid based on the herds they brought in. • Unlike “Hollywood Cowboys," Real Cowboys were mostly single, poor and many were either Black or Mexican. • The introduction of the Texas Longhorn made the price of Beef skyrocket in the North from 4$ a head to 40$ a head.
Famous Cattle Drives • Chisholm Trail- the most famous Cattle Drive stretched from SW Texas to Kansas. • Great Western Trail- stretched from Kerrville, Texas to Nebraska. • Goodnight Trail- Stretched from Mid-Texas to Wyoming.
Decline of Ranches • Barbed Wire leads to the closing of the frontier. • Over population of Cattle led to overgrazing which ruined many of the ranches. • Windmills and the extension of the railroad also ruin many of the ranches. • Blizzards helped to bankrupt many Ranchers in Texas, and they were forced to sell off their ranches.
