“Finding the Great Western Trail” with CBC Foundation

On Thursday, September 27, Coastal Bend College Gertrude R. Jones Auditorium hosted a reception and lecture on “Finding the Great Western Trail” by Sylvia Gann Mahoney. All proceeds from the event with to the Coastal Bend College Foundation Office to be disseminated to students through scholarship opportunities.

Author, Sylvia Gann Mahoney addressed the audience about the importance of the Great Western Cattle Trail in the late 1800s and the stories of the people who worked with it.

The Great Western Cattle Trail wasn’t as well known as some of the other cattle trails of the time, but it was longer in distance and lasted approximately two years longer than the better known Chisholm Trail. In 1874, John T. Lytle, blazed the trail moving 3,500 longhorn cattle from the ranges of Texas to Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Most of the trail ran parallel to the Chisholm Trail into Kansas from the Texas hill country.

The last reported drive on the trail was made in 1893 by John Rufus Blocker, who transported his herd from West Texas to Deadwood, South Dakota. By that time, as many as six million cattle and one million horses had been driven to northern pastures and markets along the route.