Goodnight Loving Trail

• Goodnight-Loving Trail


  A cattle trail from Texas to the new populations in the West
• Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving established the Goodnight-Loving Trail

  1866
• The Navajo Indians, who were being kept in a reservation near Fort Summer, were close to starvation due to poor government planning
• Goodnight and Loving's actions

  1. Drove thousands of cattle north to the reservation

  2. Sold cattle to the starving Indians for a huge profit
• This was the beginning of Goodnight's incredibly profitable cattle career
• Goodnight-Loving Trail

  • It was dangerous
  • It passed through hostile Indian Territory
  • Attacks from Plains Indians were frequent
• Oliver Loving died from a Comanche attack

  1867
• However, Goodnight continued to drive cattle along the trail
• Goodnight sold huge numbers of cattle to John Illif who had recently created the open range
• Goodnight's Texan ranch expanded to one million acres due to his success