Ernest Staples Osgood, The Day of the Cattleman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959, orig. ed. 1929), 105.
James W. Whitaker, Feedlot Empire: Beef Cattle Feeding in Illinois and Iowa, 1840-1900 (Ames, Iowa State University Press, 1975), 56.
By cattle, I mean cattle raised for slaughter, not milk cows or oxen.
The classic account of these towns is still Robert Dykstra, The Cattle Towns (New York: Knopf, 1968), 38-39, 55, 60-73.
Ogallala emerged later as the final terminus of the southern trail.
John Clay, My Life on the Range (New York: Antiquarian Press, 1961, orig. ed. 1934), 107-8.
The number rose to 34,400 in 1875, had more than doubled, to 73,094, by 1877, and then exploded with the return of prosperity, rising to 121,571 in 1881 and 207,574 in 1882, before falling back to 177,651 in 1883.
"Eleventh Annual Livestock Report, Kansas City Stock Yards for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1881," 33, 1880, 1.92, CB&Q, "Twelfth Annual Livestock Report, Kansas City Stock Yards for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1882," 33, 1870, 8.12, CB&Q.
The Union Pacific reported 3,000 cars of livestock shipped in 1875.
Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, vol. 3, Agriculture (Washington D.C.: GPO, 1883), 141.
Report to the Stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad for the Year 1875 (Boston, 1876), 5.
Eugene Mather, "The Production and Marketing of Wyoming Beef Cattle," Economic Geography 26 (April 1950): 82.