Horsin' Around Kerr County: Reliving the Wild West's iconic Trail

The Great Western Trail was, in a nutshell, a cow path for movin' herds from Texas to Kansas, where the steers caught a ride on freight cars to spend their days in the eastern market. This trail was cracked open in the 1870s and kept rolling till the early 1900s. Now, Kerr County's got four markers to pay homage to the Legendary Western Trail, a historic highway through the Lone Star State. These commemorative stones were kick-started by the Rotary Club of Kerrville, and there was a hootenanny at various spots across Kerr County for the jollof.

The Great Western Trail followed the more famous Chisholm Trail, connectin' to major railheads in Kansas for shippin' burgers to Chicago. Cattle were driven north to grazin' lands in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan in Canada. The International fellas declared the trail the Good Western Trail in 2004. They're aimin' to stamp this trail from Matamoras, Texas to Val Marie, Canada, thanks to the partnership between the Rotary Club of Kerrville and the Kerrville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

The markers found their homes at the Ingram Loop, the YO Ranch in Mountain Home, the National Museum of Western Art, and the Kerrville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. These stones'll remind the towns of the heavy presence of the cattle industry during those longhorn years, and they'll also lure more tourists to dig into the trail's rich history.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons