Texas' oldest and least known cattle trail was the Opelousas Trail. Some called this trail the Beef Trail and there is some confusion as to its route. Most historians credit the confusion to the fact that the trail was more than likely a network of trails crisscrossing East Texas. Historian W.T. Block wrote that ...the trail ran parallel to the Old San Antonio Road (Present day Interstate 10) following New Orleans, Opelousas, Beaumont, and on to San Antonio. During its peak, the Chisolm Trail would see 400,000 cattle driven to Kansas rail heads each year. The Opelousas Trail, on the other hand, never saw more than 75,000 animals per year, but lasted 90 years longer than the Chisolm. James Taylor White, who settled on Turtle Bayou near Anahuac in 1818, trailed cattle to New Orleans beginning in the 1820s. One of the Louisiana buyers purchasing White's cattle was Captain Arsene LeBleu de Comarsac, who had been one of Jean Lafitte's pirates in 1820. During White's peak years, he was trailing 2,500 cattle on the Opelousas Trail annually, for which he was paid $12 in gold per head. White died in 1851 leaving $150,000 in his bank at New Orleans. A tidy sum for the time.
The first recorded Northern drive out of Texas is credited to Edward Piper in 1846. Piper drove 1000 head to Ohio where he lost money at market, but Northward drives continued in size and scope during 1849 & 1850. The trail used by drovers during this time was an established route used by Native-Americans and traders.... Settlers called it, the Texas Road. Later, men who trailed cattle on this route referred to it as the Shawnee Trail. (Named for the Shawnee Hills) The Shawnee Trail would, in time, be referred to as the Cattle Trail, the Kansas Trail, or simply, The Trail. The Texas Road crossed into Oklahoma in present day Grayson County, Texas, where the herds swam the Red River at Rock Bluff Crossing.
The first recorded Northern drive out of Texas is credited to Edward Piper in 1846. Piper drove 1000 head to Ohio where he lost money at market, but Northward drives continued in size and scope during 1849 & 1850. The trail used by drovers during this time was an established route used by Native-Americans and traders.... Settlers called it, the Texas Road. Later, men who trailed cattle on this route referred to it as the Shawnee Trail. (Named for the Shawnee Hills) The Shawnee Trail would, in time, be referred to as the Cattle Trail, the Kansas Trail, or simply, The Trail. The Texas Road crossed into Oklahoma in present day Grayson County, Texas, where the herds swam the Red River at Rock Bluff Crossing.
By 1853, amid outbreaks of Texas fever in Missouri, the ranchers and farmers in the Western part of the state turned back a herd of Longhorns, steadfastly barring their entry. Texas fever, also known as Spanish fever or Mexican fever in Texas was spread by ticks, but in 1853, this was not understood by the gener...al public. The fact that the Texas cattle seemed immune to the disease and Midwestern cattle fell ill caused many states along the trails to enact quarantine laws restricting passage of Texas cattle to the winter months or routing cattle away from settled areas. Modern research has shown that the Longhorns were born with a partial immunity to the disease. This resistance lasted a few months after birth giving the animal just enough immunity to fight the pathogen during a widespread infection. From that point, the Longhorn could live in reasonable good health while still carrying the disease. In 1893, Theobald Smith & Fred Kilborne isolated the pathogen of Texas fever, a microscopic protozoan they named Pyrosoma bigeminium.
Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011
