Across the Fence: On the Old Chisholm Trail

"Woke up one mornin' on the Old Chisholm Trail, with a rope in my hand an' a cow by the tail ... come-a ti yi yippy yippy yay ..." And so goes another of the hundreds, some say a thousand, verses that tell about the troubles on the old Chisholm Trail.

Jesse Chisholm was of Scottish and Cherokee parentage and likely never heard the trail that he blazed called The Chisholm Trail. Like Thomas Fitzpatrick, who is credited with discovering South Pass, Jesse Chisholm merely recognized the presence of a natural trail that had been in use for untold centuries before.

The core of The Old Chisholm Tr...