Driving the cattle up the trails to North Texas in the 1800s, were the cowboys upon their horses. The horse industry blossomed from there. From the dusty land of Denton County that had no fences or farms just yet, cattle ranches began to multiply, starting in the 1850s.
The Civil War took its toll on horses as well as horses and the population dwindled. But the love for horses was instilled too deep in the north of our Lone Star State. As Denton and the surrounding areas grew through the 1900s, cattle ranches and the horse industry exploded. GIVE EXAMPLE. Horses from being only present physically to being cemented into the culture and history of North Texas. “North Texas,” says Dana Lodge of the Denton Convention & Visitors Bureau, “is a true equine mecca.”
The ranching and farming industries were foundational in creating the towns of North Texas and forming the framework of how the areas were to exist and grow. In 2023, the Denton Record-Chronicle wrote, “The city of Denton was incorporated in 1866 just as ranchers began to drive longhorn cattle to market along the Chisholm Trail… Historians believe the trail hosted the greatest migration of cattle in world history. Although it was only open from 1867 to 1885, it's reported that more than 5 million longhorns and 1 million mustangs followed the trail.”
The US is home to 6.66 million horses, with Texas having the largest population of 748,829, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Today. North Texas specifically is home to many iconographic places and organizations dedicated to the equine industry from the American Quarter Horse Association in Amarillo to the first ranch of the infamous John S. Chisum in Denton County.
More than 300 horse operations exist in Denton County. Today,
The area of Denton County is one of the most important breeding and ranching areas in the US–let alone Texas–with more than 300 horse operations. Today, the culture of Texas as a whole is closely tied to the animals that have driven, carried, guided, pulled and given life to us over hundreds of years.
In 1881, Laura Irvine wrote the "Sketch of Denton County, Texas," published in The American Sketch Book: An Historical and Home Magazine:
No where, perhaps, have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished than in the lone star state; her mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys teeming with fertility; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure, her rivers and creeks rolling in solemn silence; her trackless forests where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies kindling with magic of summer clouds, and glorious sunshine--no never need a Texan go beyond his own glorious country for natural and beautiful scenery. And in no county in the state, would you be more struck with the contribution of nature and her scenery than in many parts of Denton County.