Great Western Cattle Trail

John T. Lytle was born in Pennsylvania in 1844, came to San Antonio with his family in 1860, and recovered his health on an uncle's Atascosa County ranch. He served as a sergeant in Wood's Regiment, the Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, and started his own ranch near Castroville in 1867. The trailing firm he formed with his cousin Thomas M. McDaniel in 1871 eventually handled more than half a million cattle. He helped found San Antonio's Union Stock Yards in 1886, and from 1904 until his death in 1907 he was secretary of the Texas Cattle Raisers' Association.

What the plaque says

Great Western Cattle Trail In 1874, rancher John T. Lytle founded the Great Western Cattle Trail, which became the primary route through which cattle came to northern U.S. markets. The route, also known as the Western Trail, the Dodge City Trail and the Fort Griffin Trail, was over 2,000 miles long, extending from Texas to Canada. During its existence, hundreds of thousands of heads of cattle passed over the trail each year. It entered Kerr County at Bandera Pass, followed the old road (now State Highway 173) through Camp Verde and Verde Pass, crossing the Guadalupe River at Kerrville. Kerrville became a center for trail outfitters and contractors, mostly at the Charles A. Schreiner Mercantile, while cattle pens operated near McFarland Street above Town Creek. The trail then followed Town Creek north along what is now Harper Road and departed the county north over the Peril Divide. In 1874, Charles A. Schreiner of Kerrville and John W. Light joined Lytle's cattle business; they operated their firm out of Lytle (Atascosa Co.) and Kerrville. In 1887, Schreiner bought full control of the firm. Schreiner was politically and financially instrumental to Kerrville; he invested in local banking and mercantile ventures, and was a philanthropist in the community. By 1886, the route was no longer used as a cattle trail. The overgrazing of grasslands, extension of railroads, fencing in of the open range and oversupply of cattle were among the factors that led to the demise of cattle drives. However, the Great Western Trail continues to be remembered as a significant development that shaped the culture and history of Kerr County, and of Texas and the nation at large. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — 5.3 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Treue der Union Monument — 18 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 20 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 20 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.

More markers nearby

• First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Kerrville — 3.7 mi
• Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A.F. & A.M. — 4.0 mi
• Old Spanish Trail — 4.4 mi
• Gatlin Site — 4.5 mi