<P> The Great Western Cattle Trail was used during the 19th century for movement of cattle and horses to markets in eastern and northern states . The trail was also known as the Western Trail, Fort Griffin Trail, Dodge City Trail, Northern Trail and Texas Trail . It replaced the Chisholm trail when it closed . While it wasn't as well known, it was greater in length, reaching rail - heads up in Kansas and Nebraska and carried longhorns and horses to stock open - range ranches in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, and two provinces in Canada . </P> <P> The Great Western Trail went west of and roughly parallel to the Chisholm Trail into Kansas . The cattle were taken to towns which were located on major railroads and delivered north to establish ranches . Although rail lines were built in Texas, the cattle drives continued north because of Texas rail prices, it was more profitable to trail them north . </P> <P> The Great Western Cattle Trail was first traveled by Captain John T. Lytle in 1874 when he was transporting 3,500 longhorn cattle up from Southern Texas into Nebraska . In five short years, it became one of the most traveled and famous Cattle Trails in U.S. history . Despite its popularity, traffic along the trail began to decline in 1885 due to the spreading use of barbed wire fences and the legislation calling for a quarantine of Texas cattle due to the "Texas Fever" - a disease spread by a parasitic tick . The last major Cattle drive up the trail was on its way to Deadwood, South Dakota in 1893 . By that time there had been an estimated six to seven million cattle and one million horses that had traversed the trail . Later, in order to commemorate the significance of the Cattle Drive era, two markers were erected in the 1930s at Doan's . Doan's was seen as the last "stepping - off point" before entering Indian Territory that sold supplies, ammo, tobacco, provisions, Stetson hats & guns, and anything else that would be required on the long trek . C.E. Doan had kept a meticulous record of the companies and Trail Bosses along with the number of cattle that crossed his path each year, allowing for numbers and history to be preserved, so a marker was fitting . In 2003 a new project was launched in order to place cement markers every six to ten miles along the trail, from the Rio Grande to Ogallala, Nebraska . Oklahoma set the first post south of the city at Altus . </P> <P> Texas placed its first marker at the Doan's Adobe house during the 121st Doan's May Day Picnic of 2005 . The picnic was first held in 1884 on the first Saturday of May at the now ghost town of Doans, north of Vernon, Texas . A barbecue lunch and T - shirts are available for sale, and a king and queen are crowned at the event . One of the shirts for 2017 features a design by Harold Dow Bugbee, former curator of the Panhandle - Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas, which depicts longhorns and a cowboy crossing the Red River at Doan's Crossing . There the postmaster Corwin F. Doan (1848 - 1929) also operated a store to supply the cowboys . Bugbee's sculpture is part of the 1931 Trail Drivers Monument at Doans . During the event, riders cross the river each year from Oklahoma and usually arrive just before noon . The adobe house, built in 1881, is the oldest in Wilbarger County and is open for tours during the picnic . </P>

Where did the great western cattle trail begin and end