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The Rise Of The Cattle Industry

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The cattle industry started to rise after the American civil war. This was due to the increase of cows in Texas as cows weren’t fenced in. A man called Joseph McCoy soon came up with the idea of the cow town of Abilene, where Northern buyers could meet up with Southern sellers where they were on equal footing and couldn’t be attacked by Indians. Abilene was built on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. This made it easier to transport cattle bought to the cities in the East like Chicago. By 1870 300,000 cattle were being bought and sold in Abilene. Cows that were sold in Texas for $5 could be sold for $40 in a cow town. This helped the cattle industry rise as it meant more people would sell their cows and gain profit. This then developed even further as the railroad was moved westward which developed other cow towns such as Dodge city and Kansas because it meant there was more places where you could gain more profit for selling your cows. …show more content…

Furthermore, the gold rush helped the rise of the cattle industry as it made cattle men motivated to sell their herds, this helped it develop because it meant that more cows were being sold so cow towns would have to expand or create new

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