TEXAS CATTLE TRAILS NORTH
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NOTE: We created this list of books to be featured in True West Magazine , December 2016 issue. Our passion for years has been to study and share with others the fascinating history of cattle-driving from Texas to all points north. To us, this short-lived endeavor of cowboy outfits driving herds of longhorns to an outlet, stopping along the way at cattle towns, encompasses the Old West in its purest form. In this brief fifty-year span, the American cowboy icon was born, w

Over the last two months there has been an on-going dialogue between the Kansas Department of Transportation and area historians over the alteration of the landmark Point of Rocks that islocated four miles west of Dodge City. KDOT’s plans to widen U.S. 50 highway from Dodge City to Cimarron in western Kansas involves taking a sizable chunk of the rock which has, since the early 1800s, been a landmark to travelers and cattle drovers. Today, that Point is recognizable to most p

On the open flat prairies west of Dodge City, Kansas, is an out-cropping of sandstone that rises above the rest of the landscape that can be seen for miles around. This obvious spot was a landmark to early travelers and became known as “Point of Rocks.” To aid travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, two forts were established nearby: Fort Mann (1847-1848) and Fort Atkison (1850-1855). Wagon trains headed for Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory watched for the obvious landmark in order to

Gary Kraisinger, who enjoys studying antique maps and creating his own maps, drew over eighty maps for the Kraisingers’ first book, The Western, the Greatest Texas Cattle Trail .Those maps consisted mostly of township maps, showing the section, range, and township and location of the Western Cattle Trail across western Kansas and southwestern Nebraska. Also published at the time of the book, were two poster-size maps showing the entire routes of the Western Cattle Trail—acros

Once it was decided that the many years of research on the Western Cattle Trail really needed to be put in a book, Gary and Margaret committed to working on the project every possible moment. Each was still working full time and blocks of time was not easily attainable. Margaret likes to tell this story: Gary, at the onset of the project, commented, “Oh, this shouldn’t take long. All the research is done. We should be able to do this in a few months.” Seven years later, after

Gary and Margaret were living in Dighton, Lane County, Kansas in 1967, both teaching school. Unbeknown to them, not far away was Route III of the Western Cattle Trail across western Kansas heading toward Ogallala, Nebraska, and beyond. When a local rancher friend showed them a trail across his pasture, they became curious. What trail was this? He did not know. In those days, there were no personal computers, so questions were posed to old timers in the area. Some thought it m