Cattle Driving Exhibit

This fun interactive will help you learn how many it takes and what their responsibilities are to drive a herd of cattle going up the Chisholm Trail

Contrary to many popular portrayals, cattle did not travel along the Trail in a broad, unorganized mass driven by cowboys around all sides. Rather, the herds traveled in an organized, disciplined formation of from four to six cattle abreast (50 to 60 feet across) and, depending upon the size of the herd, stretched from one-half mile to one and one-half miles in length. This system allowed as few as a dozen drovers to control herds of up to 3,000 cattle. The average herd was about 2500.

At night, and during the noon rest stop, the herd was collected into a large mass that as few as two cowboys could circle and contain. Once the herd was "road-broke," however, the resting cattle could be "thrown on the trail," or aroused and squeezed into formation, in a short period of time. Interestingly, individual cattle tended to keep about the same position in the trailing herd day after day, particularly the one or two steers who would always take the lead. In this formation, the average distance traveled was about 12 miles in one day.