Texas Cattle Trail Scholars
About Gary & Margaret Kraisinger
Since 1967, Gary and Margaret Kraisinger have had one mission in their research: to tell readers exactly where the various Texas Cattle Trails were located and their role in the history of the American West.
Through maps and in-depth research, they have documented the pathways, water crossings, and refreshment stops along the way to the final delivery destination for the Texas herds.
Early in their research, they discovered that Texas trail drivers used a network of trails—a system where a base route or “trunk line” was used originating in Texas from which, through the years, they splintered from to create various branches or off-shoots to meet the needs of changing circumstances. As homesteaders moved across Kansas, as cattle quarantines deadlines were redrawn, and as railheads changed, so did the routes.
Having grown up in western Kansas, their first project was about the Western Cattle Trail System. This delivery network of trails expanded from Texas’ trunk line throughout nine states. Some forty years of research resulted in two books and a series of maps: The Western, the Greatest Texas Cattle Trail, 1874-1897, published in 2004 and The Western
Gary & Margaret received the Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Photo taken by: Hymer Photography
Cattle Trail, 1874-1897, its Rise, Collapse, and Revival, published in 2015. For their second book, the couple received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Wrangler Award for best nonfiction book and the Six Shooter Award from the Wild West History Association for Best Book for 2016.
In 2017, with the 150th Anniversary of the Chisholm Trail in mind, the couple wrote: The Shawnee-Arbuckle Trail, 1867-1870, The Predecessor of the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas. This book showed the importance of the early Shawnee Trail and its connection to the later Chisholm Trail. Audiences will be surprised to learn that trail drivers used another route in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to
push their longhorns to Abilene, Kansas, in 1867 through 1870, before the Chisholm Trail branch was recognized.
In 2020, the Kraisingers, along with Dwaine Fosler, researched and published the routes within the Blue River Cattle Trail that left Abilene, Kansas and ended at Schuyler, Nebraska. That research was published in the Nebraska History Magazine. (winter, 2020)
In the last few years, Gary and Margaret have shifted their research and writing focus to the Shawnee Cattle Trail System—the eastern network of trails used before and after the Civil War, 1845-1875. From the eastern trunk line out of south Texas to Baxter Springs, Kansas, drovers established various branches throughout the years in order to deliver longhorns to over a dozen and a half rail terminals on five different railroads. When the Kansas 1875 cattle quarantine closed down the Shawnee Cattle Trail System, drovers moved west and created another trunk line and network, the Western Cattle Trail System.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2004: Published The Western, The Greatest Texas Cattle Trail, 1874-1886
In 1967 Gary and Margaret started to ask questions about an unknown cattle trail near their home in Lane County, Kansas. Over the next decades, they continued to research and add to their files of research. In 2004 they self-published their book that mapped and discussed the various routes of the Western Trail across western Kansas and southwestern Nebraska. The 360-page book covers the middle corridor of the Western Cattle Trail system, from Fort Supply in Indian Territory to Ogallala, Nebraska. Gary mapped the trail via section, range, and townships.
2010: Published a 4-part Series of Cattle Trail Maps
Gary and Margaret expanded their research while preparing for a second book. In 2010 they published four large poster-size maps, one for each of the south-to-north Texas cattle trails. The couple wanted to show the public that each cattle trail system had a trunk line as well as branches that were established because of changing circumstances through the years. The cattle trail system maps are: “The Shawnee Trail, 1846-1875“, “The Goodnight Trail, 1867-1885“, “The Eastern/Chisholm Trail, 1867-1889“, and “The Western Trail, 1874-1897“.
2015: Published The Western Cattle Trail, 1874-1897, its Rise, Collapse, and Revival
This second book is a comprehensive presentation of the four south-to-north cattle trail systems with the greatest emphasis on the Western Trail, which was the largest and last system. The 560-page book is divided into three sections: “The Four Texas Trail Systems”, “The Western Cattle Trail and its Feeder and Splinter Routes“, and “The Re-emergence of the Cattle Trailing Industry after the Collapse”. In this book the Western Trail is extensively mapped through nine states, from south Texas to Canada.
Summer 2015: The Chronicles of Oklahoma Published an Article by the Kraisingers
This journal, published by the Oklahoma Historical Society, printed the Kraisingers’ article, “The Early Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas, 1867-71“.
October, 2015: Both were Inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Dodge City, Kansas
Gary and Margaret were inducted as historians into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame by the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, Kansas. Margaret is the first woman to be inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
April, 2016: Kraisingers Received the Wrangler Award for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (aka the National Cowboy Hall of Fame) awarded Gary and Margaret with the Wrangler Award in Oklahoma City for their best nonfiction book of the year.
July, 2016: Kraisingers Received the Six Shooter Award for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
The Wild West History Association awarded Gary and Margaret with this award in Oklahoma City. This honor was special to Gary and Margaret because the group consists of Old West authors and book publishers.
July, 2016: Featured in the American Cowboy Magazine