Missouri Life June 2023

Rollin’

“Oh, come take up your cinches, come shake out your reins; Come wake your old bronco and break for the plains; Come roust out your steers from the long chaparral, For the outfit is off to the railroad corral.” —Traditional Cowboy Poem (anonymous)

Those of a certain age are familiar with the Western Heritage Award-winning TV series Rawhide . Every Friday night for six years, a crew of seasoned cowboys drove herds of Texas cattle toward the railhead at Sedalia, Missouri. This is one of the rare times when the storyline of a western is based on historical fact. Sedalia was the first real cowtown, and Missouri’s influence on America’s cattle business was destined to last for generations. A FORTUNE IN WILD LONGHORNS When the Civil War ended in 1865, Texas was in an eco nomically depressed state and had around five million longhorn cattle roaming wild. Steers were worth no more than four dollars a head in Texas, but the rest of the nation was clamoring for beef. The market price in Chicago stood a staggering (for that time) $40 per steer. The challenge lay in delivering the ill-tempered beasts to market.

Since there were no railroads at the time linking Texas to either the north or the east, the herds had to be deliv ered the old-fashioned way—driven by riders on horse back over countless miles to a city or town with a railroad. And so were born the legendary cattle drives of the late 19th century. In fact, there had been cattle drives to Missouri well before the Civil War. Starting as early as 1836—the year Texas won her independence—and continuing over the next two decades, Texans followed routes such as the Shawnee Trail, driving their wild mustangs and long horn cattle to Sedalia, Independence, Boonville, and Lexington. But these pre-war drives were small in comparison to the vast numbers of steers that would follow. In 1866 alone, 260,000 temperamental, slab-sided longhorns were driven up the Sedalia Trail to Missouri. And over the next

Left and above, the Trail’s End art installation at the Missouri State Fairgrounds is an ambitious multi

sculpture depiction commemorating the grueling 19th-century cattle drives that brought the animals to Sedalia’s railroad terminal. This year, a sculpture of an American Indian scout will be added to the scene.

43 / JUNE 2023