690 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



portant part, for as already stated the blood had 

 been introduced into north Texas before the first 

 herds hit the northern trails. Moreover, by the time 

 the forward movement got. into full swing a consid- 

 erable stream of Shorthorn blood was pouring into 

 the great drive from herds that had been established 

 in the south of Kansas, in the Indian Territory and 

 the Cherokee strip. Such points as Harper, Medi- 

 cine Lodge, Caldwell and Wichita were all on the 

 confines of a great cow country that had recourse 

 for bulls to the Missouri and Kentucky Shorthorn 

 herds. Then, too, the westward drift from central 

 Texas into New Mexico, Arizona, the Panhandle and 

 Colorado included some cattle of an "improved" 

 Texan type. 



The Great MigratiozL — ^As late as the year 1860 

 the mountains of Colorado still looked down east, 

 west, north and south upon a grassy wilderness 

 that practically knew only the hoofs of the buffalo 

 and the antelope and their pursuers — ^the hunters 

 and the hunted. Eailway iron at length pierced the 

 very heart of this great preserve, however, and the 

 Union Pacific locomotives sounded the end of the 

 old, the beginning of a new regime — ^the coming of 

 the cattle. 



Crossing the Red River the great hegira to the 

 north began in earnest along trails soon to become 

 historic, only to fade away again after the lapse of 

 many years into mere traditions of the past. The 

 herds were headed largely towards El Reno, Camp 

 Supply and Dodge City. From near Muskogee the 



