Site of Early Cattle Trail
Blum, Hill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Often called Chisholm Trail, since it connected with that famous route lying to the north. At Kimball Crossing (1.3 mi. SW) this trail entered Hill County. Drovers rested and reshod horses at Towash and Fort Graham, and then forded the Nolan River into Johnson County. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This trail, often called the Chisholm Trail because it fed into that famous route to the north, entered Hill County at Kimball Crossing. Drovers pushing cattle up from South Texas rested and reshod their horses at Towash and Fort Graham before fording the Nolan River into Johnson County. It was one strand in the great web of cattle trails that carried Texas beef to distant railheads.
Why it matters
The post-Civil War cattle drives were a defining chapter of the American West, and trails like this one turned Texas longhorns into a national industry.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the Civil War ended, Texas held a surplus of cattle and very little money. Longhorns had multiplied almost unchecked on the open range while the men who might have worked them were away at war. In Texas a steer was worth only a few dollars. In the growing cities of the North and East, where people wanted beef, the same animal could bring many times that.
The answer was to walk the cattle north. Railroads were pushing west across Kansas, and once a herd reached a railhead it could be shipped to packing houses and markets far away. Through the late 1860s and 1870s, cowboys drove huge herds up from South and Central Texas along a network of trails. The most famous of them came to be called the Chisholm Trail.
This was not one neatly surveyed road. It was a braid of routes that shifted with grass, water, weather, and the cattlemen's own preferences. Local paths like the one through Hill County fed into the bigger routes, and people often gave the famous name to every strand connected to it. That is exactly what happened here.
People & events
The people who used this trail were drovers, trail bosses, and cowhands, most of them young, whose names have mostly been lost. A typical outfit moved a few thousand head of cattle at an unhurried pace, because cattle pushed too hard lost weight and weight was money. Days were long, dusty, and often dull. Nights were spent on watch. River crossings and stampedes brought real danger.
The marker follows the route through Hill County like a travel diary. The herds came in at Kimball Crossing, a little southwest of here. Farther on, the drovers stopped at Towash and Fort Graham to rest and to reshoe their horses. A cow pony worked hard every day, and a cowhand without a sound horse was of little use. Then the outfits forded the Nolan River and moved on into Johnson County, one county closer to the railheads.
Fort Graham had begun as a U.S. Army post on the Texas frontier, and Towash was a small Brazos River community. Both were places where travelers could find supplies, a blacksmith, and a short break from the trail. Much of this area has changed since then, and parts of the old river country are now under or near the waters of Lake Whitney.
Its place in the American story
Trails like this one helped rebuild the Texas economy after the Civil War and started a national cattle industry. Moving longhorns north linked the ranges of Texas to the railroads, stockyards, and dinner tables of a growing country. Cow towns rose in Kansas, meatpacking grew in the Midwest, and beef became a regular part of American meals.
The drives also created one of the country's most lasting images: the cowboy. The trail years were short, lasting only about two decades. Barbed wire, railroads reaching deeper into Texas, and quarantine laws against tick fever carried by Texas cattle all brought them to an end. Still, the cattle drive shaped how Americans picture the West and themselves.
Markers like this one are a reminder that the famous trail was fed by many local routes. Each had its own crossings and stopping places, and each was known to the people who lived nearby. The national story was built out of local roads like this.
If you visit
Stand at this marker and try to picture the view the drovers had: open, rolling country, a line of dust on the horizon, and the slow sound of thousands of cattle moving north. Blum is a small, quiet place, which makes it easier to imagine the land before highways and fences.
The marker makes a good first stop on a trail-themed drive. The places it names, including Kimball Crossing, Towash, Fort Graham, and the Nolan River, are all in the surrounding Brazos country. You can explore that area by car, and Lake Whitney, to the southwest, has changed parts of the old landscape. Just keep in mind that the historic sites themselves may be marked only lightly, or not at all.
This stop pairs well with other Chisholm Trail markers farther north in Texas. Follow them and you can trace, a county at a time, the route that longhorns and cowhands once walked toward Kansas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · Chisholm Trail cattle drives
Themes & tags
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