COW TOWNS

COW TOWNS. A by-product of the dramatic growth of the cattle business in the latter part of the nineteenth century, cow towns flourished from 1867 until the 1890s when railroads ended the necessity for long cattle drives. The first of what became the stereotypical cow town was Abilene, Kansas. A small rural community that consisted of a dozen log huts, most with dirt roofs, Abilene provided what ranchers needed: acres of undeveloped fields of tall grass crossed by streams of water and a rail line to Chicago's meatpacking plants. By the 1870s, cattle drives resulted in dozens of other cow towns joining Abilene in replacing log huts with saloons, gambling rooms, and whorehouses to entice the cowboys. Although the number of gunshots fired in cow towns was far fewer then Holly wood portrayed, the violence did create conflict between the merchants and the cowboys and revealed a class conflict that characterized much of the developing West. Many of the merchants and landowners were from the North and Republican Party members, while the cowboys tended to be ex-Confederates who supported the Democratic Party. Before this class conflict could be played out, however, the era of the cow town was over. The railroad provided a more profitable means to transport beef. The cow town would continue but only in dime novels and on movie screens.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, Richard Maxwell. "Violence." In The Oxford History of the American West. Edited by Clyde A. Milner II, Carol A. O'Connor, and Martha A. Sandweiss. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

White, Richard. "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A History of the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

David O'DonaldCullen

See alsoAbilene Trail .