1. Cattle Trails and the End of the Open Range

2. Chisholm Trail
Chisholm Trail- first of the great trails opened by Jesse Chisholm in The trail started in different places in South TX and went north to the railroads in Abilene and Ellsworth, Kansas.

3. Jesse Chisholm

4. Western Trail
Trail started by John Lytle in 1874 that started in South TX near Brownsville and went north into Dodge City, Kansas.

5. Goodnight-Loving Trail
Trail started by Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight that went up the Pecos River into New Mexico and up into Wyoming. Charles Goodnight also established the first cattle ranch in the Panhandle.

6. Charles Goodnight & Oliver Loving

7. Cattle Ranches
King Ranch- founded by Richard King and his partner Mifflin Kennedy in Kingsville, TX covered more than 1 million acres of land.

8. Kingsville, TX

9. JA Ranch
Established by Charles Goodnight and his partner John Adair in 1876 in the Palo Duro Canyon (the Panhandle of TX, southeast of Amarillo). The ranch included more than 1 million acres and 100,000 head of cattle and was the first cattle ranch in the Panhandle.

10. JA Ranch southeast of Amarillo in Palo Duro Canyon

11. Matador Ranch
Founded by investors A.M. Britton and H. H. Campbell on a homestead in Motley County in A Scottish company purchased it in 1882 and acquired land in several states and Canada.

12. XIT Ranch
The largest ranch in TX that was located in the Panhandle, along the New Mexico border. It covered more than 3 million acres near Lubbock up north to the Oklahoma border. The land for the ranch was provided by the TX government in exchange for the construction of a new capitol. The contractor who built the capitol turned the land over to a group of Chicago and British investors.

13. XIT Ranch

14. Cattle and Sheep Ranching Origins
Both cattle and sheep were originally brought to TX by Spanish explorers and settlers. Ranches in TX were not only cattle ranches but many started sheep ranches for their wool and goat ranches for their hair. For a time during the ranching boom, TX was the leading wool-producing state in the nation.

15. Longhorn and Sheep

16. The end of the open range
In 1873 Joseph F. Glidden created barbed wire to help ranchers with their problem of keeping their cattle separated from each other. It would also help farmers so that the cattle could not eat their crops.

17. Barbed Wire

18. Problems with barbed wire
Cowboys and other people in TX were against barbed wire because it was bringing an end to the open range. In the 1870s and 1880s fence cutting became a problem by cattle rustlers and others who did not want the open range to end. The state of TX passed laws to stop fence cutting.
Rustler- A cattle thief. These people were the biggest problem faced by cattle ranchers in the late 1800s.

19. Windmills
The windmill made it possible for cattle owners to fence in their cattle. They were able to pump water from underground sources especially in dry West TX. Ranchers did not have to depend on sources of surface water and let their cattle roam to find them.

20. Windmills Then and Now
Windmills were first created to pump water from underground sources. As time has passed, scientists have found that by harnessing the wind, they could produce electricity. Wind is a renewable resource and windmills today are still used to pump water and also create electricity.

21. Windmill on XIT Ranch

22. Windmill

23. Windmill Farm