Goodnight-Loving Trail
The Goodnight Loving Trail was a herd route in the United States for driving cattle from Texas and New Mexico to the loading stations in the north.
The trail was particularly used in the late 1860s to lead large herds of Texas longhorn cattle from the pastures in southern Texas to Colorado . It is named after the cattle breeders Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving , who herd their first joint herd along this route in 1866 .
course
The trail ran from the southern pastures on the Colorado River (Texas) from Texas first west to Pecos on the river of the same name to avoid the dry areas of the Staked Plains . The trail then followed the Pecos mainly on the right (western) bank of the river past what was then Lincoln County to Fort Sumner . There the trail left the Pecos and leads straight north to the loading stations.
The first to be reached was Pueblo , where the animals were taken east on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad . The next city was Denver , which was connected to the eastern United States by the Kansas Pacific Railroad .
Finally the trail ended in Cheyenne , which was on the Union Pacific Railroad .