Rolling Plains Adventures - CATTLE DRIVES

The Great Western Cattle Trail

The Great Western Cattle Trail saw over seven million cattle and horses pass through Texas and Oklahoma to railheads in Kansas and Nebraska - an important factor in developing the cattle industry as far north as Wyoming and North Dakota.

A typical herd would move 10 - 12 miles a day and included 3,000 head of cattle, 11 drivers (including the trail boss), a wrangler and a cook. The drive from South Texas to Kansas took about two months at an average cost of $1,000 in wages and provisions. In the early 1870's, drivers paid $1.50 - $6.00 a head in South Texas and sold as high as $28 - $30 in Kansas. Drivers usually had a profit of $3 - $4 a head. Stockcattle were selling $25 - $30 in 1884 and went as low as $6 a head in 1893. Good panhandle cattle were selling in 1893 for $10.

In Texas, feeder trails from the Rio Grande led to the trailhead near Bandera. The trail then headed through what is now Bandera Pass towards Kerrville, then through Fredericksburg, Mason, Brady, Coleman, Baird, Albany and Fort Griffin. It is believed that the main streets of Throckmorton, Seymour, and Vernon run north and south because of the trail. One of the most important points on the entire trail was Doan's Crossing on the Red River northeast of present day Vernon.

Established in 1878, Doan's Crossing was known on the trail as "the jumping off place." The last place to get mail and supplies before entering Indian Territory, the Doan's store did a brisk business in Stetson hats, guns, ammo, tobacco and provisions. At its peak, 300 people lived in the town of Doan's, which consisted of a two-story hotel with a basement, a restaurant, saloon, drug store, supply house, wagon yard, branding pens with furnaces and corrals, twelve houses, and several families that lived in half dugouts in the hills surrounding the town site. Today, the 1881 adobe building that is still standing at Doan's Crossing, is the oldest structure in Wilbarger County.

Traffic on the Great Western Cattle Trail began to decline in 1885 with the introduction of barbed wire and legislation that was passed calling for a quarantine of Texas cattle because of the "Texas Fever," a disease caused by a parasitic tick. In 1893 the last large cattle drive up the Great Western Cattle Trail crossed the Red River heading to Deadwood, South Dakota. By this time an estimated seven million cattle and one million horses had crosses the river at Doan's Crossing and moved up the trail.

In the 1930's two markers were set at Doan's to commemorate the historical significance of the area. In 2003 a project was launched to mark the entire Great Western Cattle Trail with a cement post placed every six miles along the trail from the Rio Grande to Ogallala, Nebraska. Oklahoma set the first post south of the city of Altus near the Red River. The first post in Texas was set in 2004 during the 121st Doan's May Day Picnic at the Doan's adobe. In addition to the many enormous drives, cattle herds also traveled in fewer numbers until 1892 when homesteaders located and began fencing Oklahoma Territory.

Local lore and history tells about the Great Western Trail traversing this area with it's origin at Bandera, Texas, just to the NW of San Antonio, about 450 miles south of the Red River, and it's destination of Dodge City, Kansas, about 45 miles north of Indian Territory. Some historians called the trail the old Doan Trail, because it crossed the Red River at Doan's crossing.

Doan's Crossing was a short distance from Doan's Store, which was the last supply station for those traveling to Kansas by way of the Indian Nation. C. E. Doan kept a perfect record of the herds crossing. 1881 was the peak of the cattle herds with 301,000 head driven through. He kept the name of the trail bosses, the number of cattle, and who they belonged to. One of the largest was the King Ranch, shipping 30,000 head divided into 10 herds in a single season.

DOAN'S CROSSING

NAME: Doan's Crossing COUNTY: Wilbarger ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Warm winter, hot summer BEST TIME TO VISIT:Winter, spring, fall REMAINS: Some original structures.

Doan's adobe store 1940 Courtesy Panhandle-Plains Historical

Corwin F. Doan and an uncle, Jonathan Doan, operated a very successful supply store at the strategic point along the Red River where cattlemen crossed with their herds of cattle on the way to Dodge City, Kansas. It was known as "the jumping off place," as it was the last store on the Western Trail before entering the Indian Territory on the way to eastern markets. The store was named C.F. Doan and Company. Doan estimated the number of cattle that passed his store in 1879 to be one hundred thousand head. The boom lasted only a few years for in 1885 the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad built tracks south of Doan's Crossing and other towns became shipping points for cattle. The number of cattle being driven overland for shipment dwindled. Shortly after World War I, the towns along the railroad forced Doan's Crossing to withdraw as a center of human activity. Today, Doan's Crossing consists of the original 1881 store, some abandoned residences and a granite historical marker in bronze relief. Doan's Crossing is at the juncture of Farm to Market Road 2916 and Farm to Market Road 924 in northern Wilbarger County. SUBMITTED BY: Henry Chenoweth