28 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN August 2024 Tales of the GRACE VEHIGE | CONTRIBUTING WRITER What’s now viewed as a popular setting in an old western movie or, in modern-day, a quaint Nebraskan town, Ogallala has historically been labeled “The Cowboy Capital of Nebraska.” Ogallala received this title in 1964 as a tribute to its rumored checkered past that shaped it into the town it is today. We have likely all visited Ogallala, whether that is on a cattle drive with Augustus McCrae (i.e., Lonesome Dove) or as a traveler passing through Nebraska. Despite our visits and widespread recognition, the town’s origin could still be considered somewhat serendipitous. As described by Elaine Nielsen in Ogallala: A Century on The Trail, “Geography is often destiny. It has always been so with Ogallala, a town that came into existence at the junction of the major routes of the transcontinental migrations and of the cattle trails north from Texas.” The Trail’s Origin Ogallala’s beginning was tied to the Union Pacific Railroad, which notably fostered the development of many western Nebraska towns. While various circumstances contributed to the town’s growth, such as homesteading in the east, the presence of the U.S. Army in the area, etc., nothing was quite as impactful as the Texas Fever quarantines in 1873 that prompted cattlemen shipping in Abilene, Ellsworth and Wichita to find new routes to ship their cattle east. Aside from the cattle quarantine affecting the Chisholm Trail in Kansas, the conclusion of the Civil War combined with the abundance of cattle in Texas led cattlemen to press west. A new trail was forged from Texas to Ogallala – commonly known as the Texas Trail. It is reported that the Texas Trail had no clear, defined path. The original pathway was speculated to be 20 miles wide, running from the Red River northward, with various branches, all leading to Ogallala. On their new journey toward Ogallala, cattlemen were constantly trailing west – away from the homesteaders and influx quarantine sites. When cattlemen approached the south fork of the Republican River, they cut northwest, and a notable shift in geography made its presence known to those on the cattle drive. This portion of the drive was known as the Texas Trail Canyon, which became a well-known cattle checkpoint to inspect animal health, as well as a place for holding cattle due to the landscape’s rugged edges. An excerpt from Reminiscences of Haigler by Olin O. Wood captures the spirit of cattle drives with the often harsh environment cattlemen faced: Back in the 1920s, I met an old gentleman in southeast Lincoln County, Nebraska. When he learned that my hometown was Haigler, he volunteered the information that he knew where the town was and that he had been one of a number of riders who trailed a bunch of about 3,000 steers from Texas to Ogallala. Coming down off the flats between the Hackberry and the Republican, they came down this canyon. It was a hot summer day, and when the cattle got scent of the water in the river some distance away, they broke into a run. When McDermott (for that was his name) told of his experience following that herd of cattle in the choking dust they raised, one could easily visualize the scene. Unlucky cowboys who died at the end of the trail during the Texas cattle drive era were buried with their boots on at Boot Hills cemetery in Ogallala. PAST
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