Solving the Cattle Problem Post Civil War

In 1867, the Kansas Pacific Railroad was being built westward from Kansas City to Denver at amazing speed.  By 1868 the iron rails were already 164 miles west of Kansas City at a place named by its founders for no particular reason - Abilene.

With a few primitive livestock cars added, history began with the first Texan trail herds by rail to Chicago.
As the railroad moved westward, so did the cattle towns that grew up on those rail lines. Abilene, Hays City, Dodge City, Ellsworth and Newton, all began as "track towns" beside the railroad.  Boxcar depots, telegraph stations, water tank, windmill, underground post office and saloons sprang up along the tracks of the Kansas Pacific Railroad.

On a personal note - I grew up in such a track town in northern Indiana (Garrett) which only existed because the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran through the center of the town.

Abilene became the first of those cow towns and set the pattern for the western "Cow Town" and the stamping grounds of the Texan cowpoke.

Next we look at the similarity of the cow town and the mining town...