Texas Trail Canyon

Herds of cattle with 500 to 4000 head would come through the area near Benkelman. They would begin in Texas during the winter and move through the open range going north into the early spring as the grass became green and long enough to feed them as they traveled 8 to 10 miles a day arriving in Nebraska in May or June.

As the influx of homesteaders moved further west and the fences were put up, the trails moved westward where the range was still open.

Texas Trail Canyon in the western end of Dundy county, just east of Haigler, got its name from trail drives that came through the area and is marked with a large Historical Marker which says:

"Texas Trail Canyon. After the slaughter of the buffalo and the last of the Indian hunts, ranchers moved into this part of the Republican River country in 1875. Among them were J. P. and Ira Oliver, who were using this canyon on their range in 1876. Herds of Texas cattle were delivered to them here before being driven north to Ogallala.

Prior to 1880 the main Texas-Ogallala Trail entered Nebraska fifty miles east of here, but with the influx of homesteaders, the trail was pushed west to this area. By 1881, this canyon was known as Texas Trail Canyon and a checkpoint was established here in 1883-84, where the cattle were checked for brands and disease. It is said that 150,000 cattle were moved through here in 1886, the last year of the trail drives.

A number of pioneer burials were made in the immediate vicinity, beginning with Mexican Leon, a cowboy killed in a fight with Ira Oliver. When the railroad built through in 1881-82, a worker was killed and buried 100 yards east of here. Remains of several unidentified pioneers, adults and children have been discovered over the years and were interred here in 1971."

Trail Canyon, about five miles east of Haigler, was said to be on the route taken by the cowboys who trailed cattle from Texas to Ogallala, Nebraska, the northern terminus of the Texas Trail.

Back in the 1920’s I met an old gentleman on the Little Medicine, in Southeast Lincoln, County, Nebraska. When he learned that my home town 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.

--a paragraph taken from “Reminiscences of Haigler”, by Olin O. Wood. 1976 Haigler, Yearbook House, OH. p. 23

Few if any spots in Dundy County are so historically wrapped and with so little written history as the Texas Trail Canyon. We can go back as far as 1843 when General Fremont came to the Forks of the Republican. He divided his party, the major section going up Rock Creek. He mentioned the large sandhill that later became known as Old Baldy. A small group of men followed up the Republican and we believe they turned northwest at the Buffalo. In any event, the entire party regrouped, perhaps on the headwaters of the Frenchman. Their map shows that they continued westerly to Summit Springs, Fremont’s Butte and they reached the Platte at Fremont’s Orchard. Fremont made mention of this deep rugged gorge reaching back into the barren hills. . . and of the Indian villages on the opposite side of the river.

Mr. Manners surveyed the Nebraska-Kansas line in 1859 and we find his reference to this rugged canyon. He placed on his map a large Sioux Indian village along Buffalo Creek opposite and above the swampy river bottom.
General Custer was very much aggravated when he returned in July 1867 with live companies of cavalry in his hurried efforts to overtake Lt. Kidder. They could not cross the canyon, but had to fight the deep sand and narrow defile between the mouth of the canyon and the river.

Tom Ashton is authority for the statement that a trading post was near the canyon, before he came here in the ‘70s. Remnants of the post were visible then. Over the years trade items have been found along the river bottom, parts of guns, and considerable Indian artifacts. Floods and shifting sands have buried much more, we believe. To date we have no further record of this Indian trader.

--Taken from Dundy County Heritage, Pruett Press, CO, p.485. “The Texas Ogallala Trail Canyon” by E. S. Sutton

It was not until in the early 1880s that this spot became known as the Texas Trail Canyon. The tick-in infested herds of longhorns had caused the counties in Kansas to quarantine the longhorns. Then, too, the migration of farmers had moved the barb-wire fences pretty well across Kansas. It was suggested that a National Trail be opened in order to move the Texas cattle to the Indian reservations, and to the great grasslands of Wyoming and Montana and western Nebraska. The National Trail was to be some 30 miles wide, taking a strip from Colorado and some from Kansas. This never developed, but it was used, nevertheless. Cattle left Indian Territory at the southwest corner of Kansas and continued north just along the Kansas-Colorado line.
After reaching the south fork of the Republic, [Republican River] the herders saw no reason for continuing north but cut across the northwest corner of Kansas by going up the south fork a few miles, then northerly to Buffalo Creek, a big saving in miles for the Ogallala herds. The canyon became a noted place, its rugged sides made an almost cattle-tight holding pen. It became known as the Texas Trail. . . the Texas-Ogallala Trail.
The cattlemen had formulated certain trail rules and regulations. Cattle were always stampeding and getting lost, others becoming footsore and being dropped. All of these cattle were to carry the owner’s personal brand and also a road-brand, which were registered at the shipping points and markets. It was the policy for herds to pick up strays and take them along where they were checked at checking or inspection points. The off-brands were recorded, and in due time went to market or to the buyer, who recognized the brand and made split payment, a percentage to the owner and a larger percent to the trail boss who brought the stock in.

Such a checking station was set up at Trail Canyon. Earnest Fletcher was inspector. Earnest could not stand poverty; he needed more money than his job supplied, so it became an easy matter to cut back the off-brands, which were driven into a well-hidden pocket, and in due time the cattle were moved to a new home and covered with a new brand, all for $2.50 spot cash. That was a fast method many early cattle kings used to build up herds without the bother of she-stock.

Earnest tells an amusing incident. He had “worked the game a little too fast.” Some waddies had objected to the manner in which Earnest checked their herds and it was only through fear of the Fletcher guns that they went on to Ogallala.

After getting liquored up, they talked loudly about their hurt feelings and finally announced they were going back to the Buffalo with sufficient help to handle Fletcher. A girl friend overheard the threats and sent a messenger to Fletcher that company was coming. Earnest took the hint. When the cowboys arrived at the inspection tent, they surrounded the tent, but, to their dismay, Fletcher was gone. Fletcher said he had just received word his mother was sick in Missouri, and decided to visit. When he returned some six months later he didn’t have a job, but he had picked up a dozen or so orphans and strays, which he sold for $2.50 to $5.

It is thought that some 150,000 cattle went through the portals of the Texas Trail Canyon.