After the Civil War, Texas had some six million head of longhorn cattle but virtually no market for the beef. Demand for their product by hungry Easteners led Texas ranchers to drive their cattle through the Cherokee Strip to railhead markets in Kansas and Missouri.
Several cattle trails crossed the Outlet, but the best known is the namesake of Jesse Chisholm, a Scot and Cherokee trader, Chisholm made his first trip up the trail in 1865, and millions of cattle thundered across the Strip over the next 20 years, driven by men who had spurred a new occupation - the cowboy.
Remnants of the famous Chisholm Trail can still be found across the Cherokee Strip.
