Joseph McCoy was a cattle dealer from Chicago, who saw how to exploit the development of an ongoing trend. He was a crucial reason for the development of the cattle industry because he was the founder of the first cow town, Abilene, in 1867. He filled it with stock pens which encouraged ranchers to drive their cattle there. Abilene provided a neutral meeting place for the ranchers and buyers; it was a town free of mobs, rustlers and Indians. The idea of a safe environment to carry out a definite sale of cattle, was a factor which encouraged many ranchers to drive their cattle to a cow town. McCoy made great profits through the success of his cow town. An animal worth five dollars in Texas could be sold for ten times that amount in Abilene. This led to many other cattle towns being opened over the next few years. Between 1867 and 1881, nearly 1.5 million cattle passed through Abilene instead of being driven to more distant cattle stations. Also, McCoy was the author of Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and South West published in 1874, and this is still an important source for historians today.
On the contrary, there were many other reasons for the successful development of the cattle industry. Charles Goodnight, a cattle rancher from Texas, was a pioneer in the cattle drives. He was a soldier in the Civil War, and on his return, he discovered that his herd increased from 180 to 5,000. Along with his partner, Oliver Loving, he was the first man to drive his cattle north, in an attempt to avoid the poor prices that were paid for beef in Texas. His route to Fort Summer, established the beginning of the Goodnight-Loving trail. This trail was later extended to lead the cattle drives to Wyoming. The established trail encouraged many other ranchers to drive their cattle north in order to receive a better price for their meat. The increasing number of cattle arriving in the north meant that, by 1870, the US government was buying 50,000 to 60,000...