The American West (c1835-c1895): Goodnight-Loving Trail

The Goodnight-Loving Trail was a cattle trail from Texas to the new populations in the West. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving established it in 1866. The Navajo Indians, who were being kept in a reservation near Fort Summer, were close to starvation due to poor government planning.

Goodnight and Loving drove thousands of cattle north to the reservation to sell cattle to the starving Indians for a huge profit. This was the beginning of Goodnight’s incredibly profitable cattle career.

The Goodnight-Loving Trail was dangerous. It passed through hostile Indian Territory and attacks from Plains Indians were frequent. In 1867, Oliver Loving died from a Comanche attack. However, Goodnight continued to drive cattle along the trail and sold huge numbers of cattle to John Illif who had recently created the open range. Goodnight was so successful his Texan ranch expanded to one million acres!