Spanish explorers brought the first cattle to the Americas in the 1500s. The first Spanish cattle were tall, rangy, hardy animals with horns that grew six feet or more across. In time, ranchers bred these cattle with other types, giving rise to the famous Texas longhorns. Cattle were raised on the open range. Vaqueros herded and drove the cattle into pens, where they were then branded to show ownership. Ranchers who moved into Texas adopted the vaqueros' roping skills and other practices. Men and women of many cultures contributed to the ranching heritage of Texas. They are remembered as heroic people who opened the West.

Cattle Drives The expansion of the railroads after the Civil War played a major role in Texas's cattle industry. Huge ranches sprawled throughout South Texas and on the rangelands to the north. The famous King Ranch included 614,000 acres and tens of thousands of cattle, horses, mules, and sheep. Ranchers drove their large herds to railroad towns mostly in Missouri and Kansas, which were connected to eastern stockyards by rail. Cowhands followed major cattle trails, such as the Sedalia Trail, the Chisholm Trail, the Great Western Trail, and the Goodnight-Loving Trail.

After barbed wire became available, most ranges were fenced, and windmills pumped water to the surface. Fence-cutting wars occurred between the farmers and ranchers. The long cattle drives ended shortly after 1885 when cattle prices fell and railroads were built in Texas.

King Cotton The typical Texan in the late 1800s was not a rancher but a cotton farmer. As railroads expanded westward, the farmers had a cheap and efficient means of getting their cotton to market. Although cotton was by far the most important crop, sugarcane, rice, wheat, corn, and oats were valuable to the Texas economy, too.

After the Civil War, many smaller farms replaced the vast plantations. These farms were either sold to new owners, or they were rented to tenant farmers. Many tenant farmers and sharecroppers were formerly enslaved people.