The Longhorn Trail Author:Kenneth Ulyatt After his service as a scout at Fort Phil Kearny--described in 'North against the Sioux'--John "Portugee" Phillips left the Army and settled on the Chugwater River. — The high plains of Wyoming and Montana were ripe for development but there were too few cattle in the north to stock these lush, new ranges. In the south, however, were the great h... more »erds of Texas longhorns...and so the cattle drives began.
Although Portugee's journey is fiction, the details and incidents surrounding the drive are firmly based on fact. The killing of the buffalo, the jayhawkers, the brasada, the Goodnight-Living trail, the Comancheros, the Haymakers--all these events have their real parallel in the history of the West. And in 1869, when the Union Pacific railroad met the Central at Promontory Point the last days of the Plains Indians were in sight; but the tale of that terrible battle will be told in a final story.« less