Home > History Fact Finder > Economics and Business - How Did The American Cattle Industry Get Started?

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

How did the American cattle industry get started?

As a large-scale commercial operation, the beef cattle industry began in the years following the American Civil War (1861–65). In the 1860s, longhorn cattle, descended from cows and bulls left by early Spanish settlers, roamed the range in the West. Texas ranchers bred the longhorns with other breeds of cattle, such as Hereford and Angus, producing high-quality beef, which was in great demand in the Eastern states. Ranchers employed cowboys to round up, sort out, and drive herds of cattle to railroads in such towns as Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas, where the cattle were loaded live onto rail cars and shipped to butchers for slaughtering. These lawless, "cow towns" were full of saloons and brothels (house of prostitution), and after a long trail drive the cowboys were eager to waste their money on amusements.

In 1890 cattle ranching changed...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Systems And Terms
   1. What is laissez-faire capitalism?
   2. What is mercantilism?
   3. Why do economists still regard Adam Smith so highly?
   4. What is Keynesian economics?
   5. What were indentured servants?
   6. What was triangular trade?
   7. How were finished goods made before the Industrial Revolution?
   8. When was the New York Stock Exchange founded?
   9. What is the system of scientific management?
   10. Who invented the assembly line?
   11. What is a robber baron?
   12. What is a Horatio Alger story?
   13. What was Black Tuesday?
   14. What was the New Deal?
   15. Why was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act important?
   16. What is e-commerce?
2. Money
   1. What was a piece of eight?
   2. What was rag money?
   3. What were wildcat banks?
   4. What were greenbacks?
   5. What were Continentals?
   6. When was the U.S. income tax system established?
   7. When was the Interstate Commerce Commission established?
3. Industries
   1. What was the National Bank Act?
   2. What is the Federal Reserve?
   3. How did the American tobacco industry begin?
   4. What were the Navigation Acts?
   5. What was the Cumberland Road?
   6. What was the Pony Express?
   7. How did the invention of barbed wire change the West?
   8. When was the biggest gold rush in U.S. history?
   9. What was the Comstock Lode?
   10. What is black gold?
   11. When did diamond mining begin in Africa?
   12. How did the American textile industry begin?
   13. How did Eli Whitney happen to invent the cotton gin?
   14. What was "king cotton"?
   15. How did the invention of the reaper change America?
   16. What were bonanza farms?
   17. How did the American cattle industry get started?
   18. What is Bessemer process?
   19. When did chain stores begin?
   20. When did department stores begin?
   21. How has the mail-order business changed since the nineteenth century?
   22. Who was Rosie the Riveter?
   23. Why was Ford's Model T so important to American history?
   24. How did plastic revolutionize modern life?
   25. How long ago was computer giant Microsoft founded?

1. Industrial Revolution