Challenges
See also: Cattle drives in the United StatesOn the long trips — up to two months — the cattlemen faced many difficulties. They had to cross major rivers such as the Arkansas and the Red, and innumerable smaller creeks, plus the topographic challenges of canyons, badlands and low mountain ranges. The weather was less than ideal. In addition to these natural dangers, rustlers and occasional conflicts with Native Americans erupted. The latter demanded that drovers, the trail bosses, pay a toll of 10 cents a head to local tribes for the right to cross Indian lands (Oklahoma at that time was Indian Territory, governed from Fort Smith, Arkansas). The half-wild Texas longhorn cattle were contrary and prone to stampede with little provocation.
Read more about this topic: Chisholm Trail
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