In the aftermath of the Civil War, cash-starved Texans turned to the only resource they possessed in abundance: longhorn cows. Despite the hazards of trailing longhorns across some three hundred miles of Indian Territory, this was the only way to access the railroad... THE WESTERN TRAIL Benton McCaleb and his band of bold-spirited cowboys traveled long and hard to drive thousands of ornery cattle into Wyoming's Sweetwater Valley. They're in the midst of setting up a ranch just north of Cheyenne when a ruthless railroad baron and his hired killers try to force them off the land. Now, with the help of the Shoshoni Indian tribe and a man named Buffalo Bill Cody, McCaleb and his men must vow to stand and fight. Outgunned and outmanned, they will wage the most ferocious battle of their lives—to win the right to call the land their own.

Recounts events of an 1877 cattle drive from southern Texas to Ogallala, Nebraska, through the letters and journals of two boys and an older member of the crew.

The Western Cattle Trail stretched from the southern most points of Texas to the Canadian border. It carried more longhorns a longer distance for more years than any other cattle trail. The trek across Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska and beyond required months of hard trail life for the drivers and herds. However, most maps show this trial ending at Dodge City, Kansas.

Since 1967, the authors have had one mission: to tell readers exactly where the Western Cattle Trail was located and to give a history of its place in the American West. Their first book, The Western, the greatest cattle trail, 1874-1886, presented the location and history of the trunk line during that time period. In this second volume, the entire trunk line is presented from Texas to Canada, showing its route before and after the Kansas quarantine of 1885, plus a discussion of the system's feeder, detour, and splinter routes. The project encompasses the history that surrounds the trail. Included in this tale are the trail's cattle towns, river crossings, cowboy and homesteader comments, the Texas cattle fever, quarantine lines, herd laws, and Indian encounters. What emerges is an overall picture of the cattle-driving industry from its conception in the 1840s on the first trail system going north, the Shawnee, to its demise in 1897 on the Western Trail System.

Few periods of American history can compete with the drama and excitement of the Old West. And few characters have more glorification and admiration than the American cowboy. Up the Western Trail: The Log of a Cowboy is a true-to-life diary of a cattle drive in the heyday of the cowboy. Andy Adams gives mile-by-mile detail of a drive from the Rio Grande in Texas to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, one of the longest cattle drives to be undertaken. Adams wrote this from his decade of experience as a Texas cowboy and drover. In this tale, readers get a firsthand look at life on the trail, with all the hard work and some fun times, too. These cowboys took their herd up the Western Trail, crossing all manner of rivers and streams, meeting Commanches in Indian Territory, entertaining themselves in Dodge City and Ogallala, chasing multiple stampedes, and experiencing many other exciting adventures along the way.This is the best kind of history book: firsthand accounts of a period in time, written by the people who were there. Originally published in 1903, it is widely considered by literary critics to be one of the most accurate publications available about the Texas cattle drives. This is what Knowledge Keepers specializes in: original history accounts from all periods of American history. Check out our other titles!