The Chisholm Trail was a stock trail and wagon route used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in Southern Texas, across the Red River into Indian Territory, and northward to rail stops in Kansas. The trail consisted of a pathway established by Black Beaver in 1861 and a wagon road established by Jesse Chisholm around 1864. "The Chisholm Wagon Road went from Chisholm's trading post on the south Canadian River to the Cimarron River crossing, to the Arkansas River at the future site of Wichita where Chisholm had another trading post and on north to Abilene," according to the Kraisingers. By 1869, the entire trail from Texas to Kansas became known as the Chisholm Trail.