Goodnight-Loving Trail
Chaves County, Chaves County, New Mexico
Marker Inscription
Goodnight-Loving Trail This famous old cattle trail, running 2000 miles from Texas to Wyoming, was blazed in 1866 by Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. In New Mexico, the trail followed the Pecos Rover north to Fort Sumner, where the government needed beef to feed the Navajos at the Bosque Redondo Reservation.
Erected by New Mexico Historic Preservation Division
The Story
Blazed in 1866 by cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, this famous trail ran some 2,000 miles from Texas to Wyoming, carrying herds across the open Southwest. Through New Mexico it followed the Pecos River north to Fort Sumner, where the government bought beef to feed the thousands of Navajo people held at the Bosque Redondo Reservation. The route became one of the great arteries of the post–Civil War cattle era.
Why it matters
The trail ties together the cattle-drive economy of the frontier West and the tragic federal internment of the Navajo at Bosque Redondo — two defining threads of the Reconstruction-era Southwest.
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Related people
- · Charles Goodnight
- · Oliver Loving
Related events
- · Navajo internment at Bosque Redondo
Themes & tags
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