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Transporting Beef: Trails, Rails and Ships

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Kansas Cattle Trade

A Kansas-chartered railroad followed the trail herds west and became one of the great carriers of range cattle.

What was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway?

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway began as a paper promise. The state of Kansas chartered it on February 11, 1859, with the plan of linking Atchison and Topeka to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The "Santa Fe" part of the name was added in 1863, and the public soon used it for the whole road. By the time it was finished it ran far beyond that first idea, with its own line from Chicago to the Pacific after a trade with Southern Pacific in 1897. The Kansas Heritage railroad history lays out the early charter and the first push west.

For cattle people the railway mattered for one reason: it built toward the Texas herds. In 1870 the company had just 62 miles of track and six locomotives. Within a few years it was a freight carrier with a steady stream of two cargoes, Kansas wheat and range cattle.

How the Santa Fe reached the Kansas cattle towns

The first seventy-five miles of line reached Newton in the spring of 1871, and in places the grade was laid directly over the wagon ruts of the old Santa Fe Trail. A branch from Newton to Wichita made Wichita a major cattle shipping point in southern Kansas that same year. Trail bosses who had been aiming for Abilene on another line now had a closer railhead to the southwest.

The rails reached Dodge City in the fall of 1872. About ten years after the Wichita branch, most trail herds were heading for Dodge, which the same Kansas Heritage page describes as another shipping point on the line. A Wikiwand summary of cattle drives in the United States reports that Dodge City shipped 500,000 head in 1877 and by the 1880s called itself the cowboy capital of the world.

Santa Fe Railway and the end of the Chisholm Trail

The railway also changed which trails mattered. The Chisholm Trail lost importance after 1871 as Abilene lost its shipping role. It revived after the Santa Fe reached Caldwell, Kansas, in 1880, then declined again as rail lines extended into Texas itself. That pattern shows how closely the drives followed the rails: every extension of track shortened the walk, and every shortened walk made the trail less necessary.

Disease law shaped the same map. Missouri banned diseased cattle in 1855 and Kansas passed a similar law in 1859, the year the Santa Fe was chartered, because Texas longhorns carried ticks that spread Texas fever. Railheads on the western side of Kansas, where a line like the Santa Fe could build, kept herds away from settled farm country.

Building across Kansas and beyond

After Dodge City the company did not turn south toward Texas. It continued west, reaching the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. It chose the southwest route over Raton Pass because of coal deposits near Trinidad and Raton. The line reached Albuquerque in 1880 and met the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico, in March 1881, forming the second transcontinental route.

In 1880 the "Treaty of Boston" ended the Royal Gorge Railroad War with the Denver and Rio Grande, a fight over a single canyon route. The railroad that began by carrying cattle out of Kansas was by then a national system, and the cattle trade was one customer among many.

Harvey Houses, hard times and the Super Chief

Fred Harvey ran eating houses and dining cars along the system, and two of his hotels, El Tovar beside the Grand Canyon and La Posada in Winslow, Arizona, survive. The railroad's finances were rougher. The Panic of 1893 forced a reorganization, and in 1895 the company sold the Frisco and Colorado Midland and wrote off the losses.

The Super Chief ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, and its first diesel-electric passenger locomotives entered service in 1936. The last steam locomotive was retired in 1959, and the railroad handed its passenger trains to Amtrak on May 1, 1971. The cattle freight of the 1870s had long since become a small part of a very large business.

What Made It Work

The Santa Fe's success with cattle came from timing and placement rather than from owning cattle. It built to where a cargo was already walking, and it gave drovers a shipping point close to the grass.

That success had limits. The same Wikipedia mirror of the railway article records the Panic of 1893 reorganization, and the cattle towns it fed lost their shipping trade as soon as the rails reached Texas.

  • It ran its early line through Newton and Wichita in 1871, close to the southern Kansas trail herds.
  • It reached Dodge City in the fall of 1872, giving the drives a second major shipping point on its own line.
  • It earned early revenue from two freights at once, Kansas wheat and Texas cattle, rather than depending on one.
  • It looked for freight beyond cattle, choosing the Raton Pass route for coal near Trinidad and Raton.
  • It added services such as Harvey House meals, which made long trips easier for passengers.
  • It reorganized after the Panic of 1893 and sold lines it could not carry.

Legacy and how to learn more

The Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern on September 22, 1995, and the two lines operated separately until December 31, 1996, when the Santa Fe officially ceased operations and became part of BNSF. Its cattle legacy is mostly in place names and old depots in Kansas towns such as Newton, Wichita, Dodge City and Caldwell.

For the human side of the trail, a farm.FM story about Dodge City and the cattle trade is a good starting point, and the ranching section of farm.FM collects more on the range cattle era.

Timeline

  1. 1859Kansas charters the Atchison and Topeka railroad on February 11
  2. 1863The name Santa Fe is added to the company
  3. 1871Line reaches Newton; a branch to Wichita opens
  4. 1872Railroad reaches Dodge City in the fall
  5. 1877Dodge City ships 500,000 head, according to one summary
  6. 1880Caldwell reached; Albuquerque reached; Treaty of Boston signed
  7. 1893Panic of 1893 forces financial reorganization
  8. 1971Passenger trains transferred to Amtrak on May 1
  9. 1996Santa Fe officially ceases operations on December 31 as part of BNSF

Frequently asked questions

When was the Santa Fe Railway founded?

The state of Kansas chartered the Atchison and Topeka railroad on February 11, 1859. The name Santa Fe was added in 1863, and the company later grew into a system running from Chicago to the Pacific.

How did the Santa Fe Railway affect the Texas cattle trade?

It built branches and main lines to Newton, Wichita and Dodge City in the early 1870s, giving Texas trail herds new Kansas railheads. It also reached Caldwell in 1880, which revived the Chisholm Trail for a time.

When did the Santa Fe Railway stop operating?

The Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern on September 22, 1995, and the two ran separately until December 31, 1996. On that date the Santa Fe officially ceased operations and became part of BNSF.

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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