Eastern Cattle Trail

This native stone, dug from the Trinity River Valley, marks the route of the Eastern Cattle Trail, where cattle were driven north on Rusk Street, now Commerce Street, through the City of Fort Worth, Texas, to the bluff and then across the Trinity River to the broad valley below, where they rested before continuing their long drive north. From the end of the Civil War to the bringing of the railroad in 1876, great herds of cattle passed this way to Abilene, Kansas. The Eastern Trail, also called the McCoy Trail, became the Chisholm Trail when it reached the Red River. Fort Worth, the last place for provisions before Indian Country, received its name, 'Cow Town', and it first major industry, from this period.