Cattle Trail Crossing

Wise County's share of the cattle trade ran east of Decatur. The Handbook of Texas says that between 1866 and 1886 the Eastern Cattle Trail to Abilene, Kansas, crossed the county there, and that the town still holds an annual Chisholm Trail Barbecue. In the spring of 1870 D. Waggoner and Son took a herd to Kansas that netted $55,000, the money behind the Waggoner empire. The Handbook dates cattle use of the main Chisholm Trail from 1867 to 1884, so the Wise County crossing outlasted it by two years.

What the plaque says

Cattle Trail Crossing Near this site ran one of the many "feeder" branches of the famous Chisholm Trail, best-known of all the cattle trails that once linked the vast grasslands of Texas with the meat-hungry markets of the north. The original trail, which stretched from the North Canadian to the Arkansas River, was blazed in 1865 by Jesse Chisholm, a half-Scottish and half-Cherokee trader. The 220-mile route, soon taken up by drovers, was extended north and south. Branches all the way from the Rio Grande gradually snaked up to join the main trail at the Red River. Although unpredictable Texas weather and hostile Indians sometimes prevented the drovers from keeping to the main route, certain points were fixed. One of these was the Trinity River ford at Fort Worth, just south of here, where cattle might have to wait for weeks to cross if the river had recently flooded. In 1895, the fenced range, railroad, and quarantines against the fever tick had reduced to a trickle the flood of cattle leaving Texas on the hoof; but by this time, the trail had helped restore the economy of Texas (wrecked by the Civil War) and it had left a legacy in folksong and legend of cowboy days on the untamed Texas frontier. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wise County Courthouse — 11 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 15 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.

More markers nearby

• Ponder — 7.4 mi
• Slidell — 7.7 mi
• City of Krum — 9.4 mi
• Greenwood — 10 mi