Before the Texans won independence from Mexico, stocks of Spanish cattle
owned by Mexicans ranged the plains of southern Texas. Then the Mexicans
were driven out, and their cattle ran wild. By the time of the Civil
War, herds of wild longhorns roamed the Texas ranges. As the population
of the United States grew and the railroads pushed into the
trans-Mississippi region, the cattle industry became big business. Texas
ranchers began rounding up the wild cattle and driving them to market
over various trails, the best known of which probably is the Chisholm
Trail. Ranching soon spread to other western states clear to the
Canadian border. The decades following the Civil War were the golden age
of the cowboy.