FINDING THE GREAT WESTERN TRAIL

by

Susan Gann Mahoney

published by 

Texas Tech University Press

The Great Western Trail (GWT) is a nineteenth-century cattle trail that originated in northern Mexico, ran west parallel to the Chisholm Trail, traversed the United States for some two thousand miles, and terminated after crossing the Canadian border. Yet through time, misinformation, and the perpetuation of error, the historic path of this once-crucial cattle trail has been lost. Finding the Great Western Trail documents the first multi-community effort made to recover evidence and verify the route of the Great Western Trail.

The GWT had long been celebrated in two neighboring communities: Vernon, Texas, and Altus, Oklahoma. Separated by the Red River, a natural border that cattle trail drovers forded with their herds, both Vernon and Altus maintained a living trail history with exhibits at local museums, annual trail-related events, ongoing narratives from local descendants of drovers, and historical monuments and structures. So when Western Trail Historical Society members in Altus challenged the Vernon Rotary Club to mark the trail across Texas every six miles, the effort soon spread along the trail in part through Rotary networks from Mexico, across nine US states, and into Saskatchewan, Canada.

This book is the story of finding and marking the trail, and it stands as a record of each community’s efforts to uncover their own GWT history. What began as local bravado transformed into a grass-roots project that, one hopes, will bring the previously obscured history of the Great Western Trail to light.

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BUY LINKS

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AMAZON B&N TTU PRESS

Sylvia Gann Mahoney was an educator for thirty-three years at community colleges in Texas and New Mexico as an administrator, teacher, and rodeo team coach. She became involved with the Great Western Trail project through her involvement in the Rotary Club of Vernon. She now lives in Fort Worth

GOODREADS

By Deana Dick

What a great adventure this book takes readers on as we discover The Great Western Trail. The purpose of the project was to document the trail which had almost disappeared from history. One of the distinctions of the trail was that it was the longest trail, lasted the longest had more cattle travel on the trail than any other trail in Texas.

There was a confusion when one man attempted to change the trail's name. It was a lot of research before they could get the right name in place. It's funny that even today some towns still call the trail by another name. I suppose old habits are hard to forget.  Along the trails you would fund Longhorns, which the average amount being around 2,500. I can't imagine the hard work that was involved in herding these magnificent animals.

I remember my dad watching western movies every Saturday morning. His favorite actor was John Wayne, the iconic cowboy of that era. It would show him as the trail boss leading a herd and the rough terrain they traveled on. Did those westerns of long ago help tell the true story of the trail? It seems that the Chisholm Trail was always mentioned , but little was said about the Great  Western Trail.

The book is rich in details of the many people who were part of the trail in some way. Their stories are fascinating to read . If you are a history buff you will not be disappointed in this book full of long forgotten and little know facts about the trail. The pictures provided in the book helps readers visualize the journey and the people who were involved in it. I did enjoy seeing the pictures of the monuments that detailed the history in words.

I enjoyed the book because it is rich in Texas history, the research involved was very detailed and it celebrates a part of history that was almost forgotten. "This book is a record of those community volunteers, who gave selflessly to verify the length of the trail, thus rescued it from obscurity ."

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