<P> The war blocked access to eastern markets . During the Civil War, the Shawnee Trail was virtually unused . Texas cattle numbers grew significantly in that period, and after the war could not be sold for more than $2 a head in Texas . By 1866 an estimated 200,000 to 260,000 surplus cattle were available . </P> <P> In 1865 at the end of the Civil War, Philip Danforth Armour opened a meat packing plant in Chicago known as Armour and Company, and with the expansion of the meat packing industry, the demand for beef increased significantly . By 1866, cattle could be sold to northern markets for as much as $40 per head, making it potentially profitable for cattle, particularly from Texas, to be herded long distances to market . </P> <P> The first large - scale effort to drive cattle from Texas to the nearest railhead for shipment to Chicago occurred in 1866, when many Texas ranchers banded together to drive their cattle to the closest point that railroad tracks reached, which at that time was Sedalia, Missouri . However, farmers in eastern Kansas, still concerned that transient animals would trample crops and transmit cattle fever to local cattle, formed groups that threatened to beat or shoot cattlemen found on their lands . Therefore, the 1866 drive failed to reach the railroad and the cattle herds were sold for low prices . There were other drives northward without a definite destination and without much financial success . Cattle were also driven to the old but limited New Orleans market, following mostly well - established trails to the wharves of Shreveport and Jefferson, Texas . In 1868, David Morrill Poor, a former Confederate officer from San Antonio, drove 1,100 cattle from east of San Angelo into Mexico over the Chihuahua Trail . This event, the "Great Chihuahua Cattle Drive," was the largest cattle drive attempted over that trail up to that time, but the market was much better in Kansas than in Mexico, so most drives headed north . </P> <P> By 1867, a cattle shipping facility owned by Joseph G. McCoy opened in Abilene, Kansas . Built west of farm country and close to the railhead at Abilene, the town became a center of cattle shipping, loading over 36,000 head of cattle in its first year . The route from Texas to Abilene became known as the Chisholm Trail, named for Jesse Chisholm who marked out the route . It ran through present - day Oklahoma, which then was Indian Territory, but there were relatively few conflicts with Native Americans, who usually allowed cattle herds to pass through for a toll of ten cents a head . Later, other trails forked off to different railheads, including those at Dodge City and Wichita, Kansas . By 1877, the largest of the cattle - shipping boom towns, Dodge City, Kansas, shipped out 500,000 head of cattle . </P>

How did cowboys get cattle to railroad cities
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