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Famous Cattle Towns

Caldwell, Kansas: The Border Queen at the End of the Texas Trail

The first stop north of Indian Territory shipped about 100,000 head a year in the early 1880s and buried a long list of lawmen.

Why was Caldwell called the Border Queen?

Caldwell sat just north of the Oklahoma line, which made it the first town in Kansas that trail drovers reached after crossing Indian Territory. Cowboys who had spent weeks on the trail came in to spend their pay, and the town took the nickname Border Queen. Legends of America describes it as the first town north of Indian Territory where cowboys could go wild after the trail.

The town was founded in 1871 and named for Senator Alexander T. Caldwell. Captain C. H. Stone, one of the townsite founders, built the first structure, a log house used as a store and post office, and became the first postmaster. For years it was little more than a trading post, with about 260 residents as late as 1879.

How the railroad made it a cowtown

Everything changed when the Santa Fe Railroad extended its line to Caldwell. Wichita investors formed a town company in 1879 and sold lots for $125, and the population grew to about 1,500. The Kansas Historical Society dates Caldwell's cowtown period to 1880 through 1885.

Caldwell lay within the area Kansas had quarantined against Texas cattle, but it was close enough to the border that it kept operating. The Society reports that about 100,000 head were shipped in 1882 and again in 1883. Legends of America says more than a million longhorns passed through town during its cattle days, a figure it does not source, so treat it as a popular estimate.

The most dangerous town in Kansas?

The same article claims Caldwell had a higher murder rate and more lawmen killed than more famous cowtowns between 1879 and 1885, with violence claiming 18 city marshals. It lists several incidents. On 7 July 1879 two men were killed at the Moreland Saloon. Former marshal George Flatt was ambushed and killed on 18 June 1880. Mayor Mike Meagher died in a shootout with Jim Talbot and others on 17 December 1881, and Marshal George S. Brown was killed in the Red Light Saloon on 22 June 1882.

Violence did not end with the trail traffic. Henry Newton Brown, a former Caldwell marshal, was killed with his deputy Ben Wheeler by a mob after an attempted bank robbery in Medicine Lodge on 30 April 1884, and on 29 July 1884 a lynch mob killed Buffalo Bill Brooks and two other horse thieves.

What Made Caldwell Work

Caldwell's rise was a matter of position and timing. It had no great ranches of its own. It sold services and shipping space to herds arriving from Texas.

The documented advantages were few but decisive.

  • Border position: it was the first Kansas town drovers reached after Indian Territory.
  • Rail connection: the Santa Fe line reached the town, so cattle could be loaded close to the trail's end.
  • Quarantine exemption in practice: although inside the quarantined zone, it stayed in business because of its closeness to the border.
  • Investor money: Wichita backers formed the town company and sold lots in 1879.
  • Limits: the trade lasted only about five or six seasons before it moved farther west.

The end of the trail trade

By 1885 the cattle trade had moved west and Caldwell turned to farming. Across Kansas, the Historical Society cites railroads reaching Texas, quarantine laws, fencing and homesteaders as the causes of the trail's end. Caldwell got one last moment in 1893, when Congress opened the Cherokee Outlet for settlement and about 15,000 people gathered in town for the land run on 16 September. Afterward, new towns in the territory took over settlers' business and Caldwell's growth slowed.

Costs and context

The Kansas Historical Society notes that quarantine laws existed because Texas cattle carried a tick that spread Spanish fever to local herds, which is why the cattle trail had to keep moving west. The trade also depended on crossing Indian Territory, the homeland of several nations, and the 1893 opening of the Cherokee Outlet put that land into settlers' hands. Caldwell profited from both.

Visit or learn more

Caldwell today is a railroad junction and farming town of about 1,300 residents. For more, read Legends of America's profile of Caldwell the Kansas Historical Society's overview of Kansas cowtowns and the Kansapedia entry on the Chisholm Trail. Related reading includes ranching history on farm.FM and a farm.FM story on Kansas cowtowns.

Timeline

  1. 1871Caldwell founded north of the Indian Territory line
  2. 1879Wichita investors form a town company; Santa Fe railroad extended to Caldwell
  3. 1880Start of the cowtown period, per the Kansas Historical Society
  4. 1881Mayor Mike Meagher killed in a shootout
  5. 1882About 100,000 head shipped; Marshal George S. Brown killed
  6. 1883About 100,000 head shipped again
  7. 1884Lynch mob kills Buffalo Bill Brooks and two other horse thieves
  8. 1885Cowtown period ends as trade moves west
  9. 1893About 15,000 gather for the Cherokee Outlet land run

Frequently asked questions

Why was Caldwell, Kansas called the Border Queen?

It was the first town north of Indian Territory that Texas trail drovers reached, so cowboys came in to celebrate at the end of the trail.

How many cattle shipped from Caldwell?

The Kansas Historical Society reports about 100,000 head shipped in each of 1882 and 1883. Other accounts claim more than a million longhorns passed through, but that figure is not sourced.

When was Caldwell a cowtown?

The Kansas Historical Society gives 1880 to 1885 as the cowtown period. After that the cattle trade moved west and Caldwell became a farming community.

Why was Caldwell so violent?

Legends of America says Caldwell had a higher murder rate than more famous cowtowns from 1879 to 1885 and lists 18 city marshals killed, though it does not detail each death.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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