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Lonesome Dove cattle drive route .... a question !

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

Well-known Member
Into the last hundred pages or so of the Lonesome Dove book, great story. Read it many years ago too, it's funny how little a guy remembers over the years. Anyways, below is a link that the cattle drive took from Lonesome Dove near the Texas-Mexico border all the way north to Milk River, Montana. The link below shows the cattle drive route in red color as it moved from Texas and then through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and then Montana. Once in the site, scroll down to the map. Which brings me to my question ....

Any of the YT crowd here live in the vicinity of this famous (but fictitious) route?
Hat Creek Cattle Company cattle drive route
 
From that map it would have came right through my town in NE Wyoming, cattle drives were a Huge part of our history,, as was the Johnson County War that took place just west of me about 70 miles
 
Interesting.

For some reason I have never gotten into the Lonesome Dove stories in print or video.

One of those ?I should get around to it? things.

Enjoyed that link.

Paul
 
Paul, you probably know that there were four books written in the "series" but they were published out of chronological order. And none of them were really closely tied to the others except for some characters. From what I read on book reviews, the only "great" book is Lonesome Dove, it won a Pulitzer Prize. The other three are OK but not nearly as good .... Comanche Moon, Dead Man's Walk, and Streets of Laredo. Time-wise, Lonesome Dove would have been #3 in the order. I have a six-hour VHS tape on the original that I'm going to watch over the winter sometime.
 
Chisholm Trail is said to be pretty much where Preston Road (state HWY 289) passes through Dallas County. Very near that.
 
I'm a couple hundred miles away from it, but I have friends around Ogallala, NE and I'm well familiar with the town.

Plus, I've been to events at the Haythorn Ranch just north of Ogallala. The bill themselves as the largest quarter horse training facility on earth, or something to that effect, and I have no reason to doubt it.
 
The actor starring in Lonesome Dove, believe it was Rob Duvall is one of the best actors in western movie series, did an exceptional performance in that movie. In fact the whole movie series was exceptional.
 
Charles Goodnight is the real life person that the Lonesome Dove trail drive part of the story was roughly based on. You might check his story out.
 
That trail closely resembles the Western Trail.

I live just east of there where the Chisholm Trail came through the Ft Worth Stock Yards.
 
I am not a big fan of westerns, but that movie and it's sequel Return to Lonesome Dove, were really well done movies. They seamed to make you part of the excitement and drama, and captured the dedication and sacrifices of such a venture into the unknown. There were many unique story lines going on all the time, that kept you involved and intrigued every moment.
Loren
 
I"ve seen the old trail near Moorcroft, WY and they have a nice museum there that featured the trail drives when I was there.
 
Steve, this is from Ed Bruce's "The Last Cowboy Song" which I'm sure you heard many a time ....

The Old Chisholm Trail is covered in concrete now
And they truck 'em to market in fifty foot rigs
They blow by his market never slowing to reason
Like living and dying was all that he did
 
The "Return to Lonesome Dove" mini-series was not written by Larry McMurtry, but I found it to do a very satisfactory job of keeping the story going (when you finish reading/viewing "Lonesome Dove" you want more) and to wrap up dangling loose ends. McMurtry's own sequel was "Streets of Laredo"; "Commanche Moon" and "Deadman's Walk" were prequels.

McMurtry has written a lot of good stuff; some of his better work was not western.
 
Just a little off the trail. I just love the John Wayne movie, The Cowboys. When those kids tied Bruce Dern to the back of that horse! Another movie Dern is good in is ,Silent running. Great sci-fy movie.
cvphoto4173.jpg


cvphoto4174.jpg
 
I'm in SwOkla where it shows to cross the Red at Doans crossing is about 15 miles from me and that is I guess the actual western trail said to have been like 7 million head crossed there through the years it's only about 4 miles east of US 283 hieay
 
I don't watch most of what they have for today's movies but I liked Robert Duvall in Second Hand Lions. If you haven't seen it, its worth the time. I watch it with my grandson (he's 11) and tell him those old coots are what I aspire to be when I retire.
 
Just think of the environmental impact all those cows made crossing streams and trampling native vegetation it's a wonder we're all still alive.
 
The cattle drive route from the movie was loosely based on the Great Western Cattle Trail which existed from about 1872 to 1895. Some books have been written about it, one "Log of a Cowboy" written in 1882 details a 3000 head cattle drive from Texas to Montana on this Trail.
 
It's quite a place. They even have their own event center for meetings, conferences, etc.

Since this is a tractor forum, I'll mention a friend of my who ranches near there has 6 H Farmalls. He says they're still a great tractor for hay work, and each one of his has its own job.
 
One funny part of the book was what happened when the 3 teenage cowboys got to Ogallala.
 
Would have pretty much run right on top of me. I'm about 40-45 miles southwest of San Antonio. Between Devine and Hondo. Looks like it goes through Castroville west of San Antonio. Tony. PS If I were offered that job today I'd have a hard time turning it down.
 
Not related to Lonesome Dove, but years ago drove through Kansas and followed some of the Oregon trail as it once passed through that state. Mostly a big depression in the landscape left by the passing of all those wagons. What stirred my imagination is the silhouette-style sculptures many people had on their land--showing the outline of riders on their horses with wagons following. Wonder how many of those families are descended from those early travelers who decided to stay put?
 
The mini series is on you tube. I watched it all a few weeks back. I would say it's the best western mini series, tombstone is the best movie and blazing saddles is the best comedy western.
 
I taped Lonesome Dove when it first aired; later got the DVDs. And then read the book. Great series.
Another good move ,to me anyway,is Open Range-I love the showdown/shootout. Mark.
 
The Lonesome Dove story is based on the lives of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, but the trail of the book follows the Western Trail, which passed through Ogallala. It passed within about 50 miles of where I grew up in the tri-state area of eastern Colorado.
 
Don't forget Tommy Lee Jones and his part. He had the push to get things moving. All the parts were pretty good.
 
My braggin' rights are that in this century I've driven horses and wagon from Bandera, TX (west of San Antonio), up the "Great Western Cattle Trail" to Dodge City, Kansas and then onward to Ogallala, Nebraska.
Seven weeks from Bandera to Dodge City.
Three weeks from Dodge City to Ogallala.
kelly
 
(quoted from post at 15:18:55 11/29/18) The "Return to Lonesome Dove" mini-series was not written by Larry McMurtry, but I found it to do a very satisfactory job of keeping the story going (when you finish reading/viewing "Lonesome Dove" you want more) and to wrap up dangling loose ends. McMurtry's own sequel was "Streets of Laredo"; "Commanche Moon" and "Deadman's Walk" were prequels.

McMurtry has written a lot of good stuff; some of his better work was not western.
Click to expand...

His son James McMurtry is very good also. He tells a lot of great stories in his songs.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWRfBZY-ng
 
Dumb question: Why were they moving the cattle that far? 1500 miles seems like a long way to drive cattle, especially when they moved right past many closer markets. Were they moving breeding stock to a newly opened area? Was it just to improve the story line?
 
SS ..... I think it's a good question. Well there was no story line for the actual history of what did happen, not to the Lonesome Dove story crew but others that were factual. But why does any group of people go off on some kinds of an exploration or adventure thinking they'll end up being rich or own land or for whatever reason? The Europeans did it just over 500 years ago heading west across the Atlantic, the Norsemen 1000 years ago. Same thing about mountains, why does anyone climb them just to climb back down afterwards? Why does someone who is well off rick his fortune in the stock market on a gamble? I guess if there were answers to those questions then we'd have humans about figured out (which will probably never happen).
 
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