The Cattle-Trailing Industry

Jimmy M. Skaggs was Professor of American Studies and Economics at Wichita State University and the author of Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983.

"Skaggs has performed a service in focusing the attention of historians on an important but neglected aspect of the cattle business."W. Turrentine Jackson"This book definitely has its place both in business history and in western history."Joe B. Frantz, Journal of American History"By diligent research [Skaggs] has pieced together the careers of some twenty men who moved, according to his estimates, three­ fourths of all the cattle driven for sale to railhead markets and northern ranges during the era of the long drive. Though not oblivious of the adventurous and humorous aspects of their lives, Skaggs sees them as profit-oriented entrepreneurs, innovative and capable of improvisation in adjusting to their economically hazardous occupation. . . . This is the kind of history that will put the West in proper perspective."Lewis Atherton, Pacific Historical Review"[Skaggs] has given us the record we have never had, a record of name, date, time and place. He has brought these 'cattle-trailing contractors,' who have long been names in legends, back into a rich and earthy aliveness. He calls them American geniuses, and that they were."Great Plains JournalThe harsh business realities of driving cattle are separated in this book from the mythology and folklore of the cattle-trailing era. Jimmy M. Skaggs focuses on the transportation agents who contracted the delivery of cattle for Texas ranchers and drove the animals northward for sale. He reveals them as shrewd "hip-pocket" businessmen.Jimmy M. Skaggs was Professor of American Studies and Economics at Wichita State University and the author of Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983.