The Cattle Drives of the Past

This began with the construction of the Transcontinental Railroads - a huge engineering project, that opened up grassland in the Great Plains, to the Cattlemen of the time. 

Cows, with their complicated system of many stomaches. have the ability to convert grass into meat. 

These men grew rich by slowly driving cattle northward, and then shipping them to the Packing Houses that turned them into Beef. 

They hired Cowboys to keep the cows moving at the proper pace, which could difficult during storms. 

Gradually, literature developed that glamorized the Cowboy, and Movies where made, that started the singing Cowboy. These were called Westerns and people loved them. 

Then these grasslands were fenced in (with barded wire) and used for growing crops. The Wild West was no more!