About the Song

• This was the most universally sung of all cowboy songs.
• The first and most popular trail to Abilene had been marked out by a half-breed Cherokee Indian trader named Jesse Chisholm.
• The trail was soon known as the Chisholm Trail.
• Hundreds of cowboys, driving tens of thousands of cattle, made up thousands of verses to this song while in the saddle.
• It was probably written before 1882 when the Chisholm Trail fell into disuse.