The first big cattle ranches appeared in Texas, whose wide-open spaces and abundant open range were ideal for stock growing. After the Civil War, with beef prices enticingly high, the Texas ranchers began driving their herds to railheads in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming, for shipment  back east on the newly completed railroads.  Between about 1866 and 1886, more than  10 million cattle lumbered along the Chisholm, Goodnight-Loving, Lone Star, Montana, Shawnee, and other trails -- and into the folklore of the West..

The road was not easy, nor was it as romantic as later portrayed in motion picture and song.  Trail life was demanding and strenuous but ultimately quite satisfying.  The collections of the Colorado Historical Society contain a wealth of primary resources, books, and magazine articles that illustrate the "real life" of the cowboy.  Information about various aspects of the cattle trade provides a wider context within which to understand the lives of cowboys and cowgirls, ranchers and their families, businessmen, and townspeople of the West as the cattle moved through.

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