Caldwell and the Chisholm Trail

The trail's name honors a man who never drove cattle. Jesse Chisholm built trading posts and was known as a trader, guide and interpreter, and part of the cattle route followed his trade roads. A drive brought 2,000 to 3,000 head north with about ten cowboys, a cook and a wrangler, leaving Texas in spring and reaching the railhead about two months later. At 8 to 10 miles a day the steers grazed as they went and could gain 80 to 100 pounds. Cowboys sang 'The Old Chisholm Trail,' a song collected in as many as 1,000 verses.

What the plaque says

Caldwell and the Chisholm Trail A mile southeast of this marker the Chisholm trail entered Kansas. It took its name from Jesse Chisholm, Indian trader, whose route lay between the North Canadian river and present Wichita. In 1867 it was extended from the Red river to Abilene when the building of the Union Pacific gave Texas cattle an Eastern market. Over this long trail more than a million head were driven before the Santa Fe built south and brought the drives to Newton, 1871, and the next year to Wichita. Incoming settlers in Kansas soon fenced off the land and by 1876 drovers had abandoned the trail. In 1880, however, the railroad built to Caldwell, one mile north, and drives were resumed. It is estimated that two million long- horns were driven across the prairie here on a road that in many places was a quarter of a mile wide and as bare as a modern highway. Erected by Kansas Historical Society and State Highway Commission

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Chisholm Trail in Sumner County — 29 mi
• Old Runnymede — 30 mi