1. Cattlemen and Cowboys
Key factors in the development of cattle ranching.
The demand for beef in the populous eastern states
Key individuals
Joseph McCoy
Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving
John Iliff
The Cowboys
The railroad

2. Lesson Objectives To identify the origins of the cattle industry
To identify the role of McCoy, Illif, and Goodnight and Loving in the development of the cattle industry
To explain why these men made an important contribution

3. It has been argued that Joseph McCoy began the ‘beef bonanza’
It has been argued that Joseph McCoy began the ‘beef bonanza’. McCoy was a livestock trader in Chicago.
McCoy knew that railroad companies were keen to carry freight on their trains. He built a hotel, stockyard, office and bank to create a ‘cow town’.
He set up the ‘Chisholm trail’. Cattle men could drive cattle up the trail to the rail head at Abilene without hostility from farmers as they did not cross their land. Cattle could be taken by rail east to be sold.

4. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving
Charles Goodnight was a Texan who returned from the civil war to find his stocks of cattle had risen significantly. His herd had risen from 180 in 1860 to 5000 in These were useless unless he could sell them.
Goodnight realised that the Government needed food for army outposts and reservations.
He decided to blaze a trail with Oliver Loving, called the Goodnight-Loving Trail. This went through the Plains, avoiding homesteads but passed through Indian territory.
As the numbers of Indians on reservations increased, the need for beef became even more important, thus Goodnight and Loving made more money.

5. A boom in
driving cattle

6. John Iliff and a move to ranching
Iliff was a rancher. In his life he had been a gold prospector and had opened a store selling supplies to those traveling west.
He began by buying Longhorns from Goodnight. Soon his stock numbered 35,000. He kept them on the Plains and sold beef to the rail companies and to the government for the Sioux reservations.
He also tried to improve the quality of beef by crossbreeding Longhorns with Herefordshire cows from England.