After the American Civil War ended in 1865 and ranchers and cattlemen went home they discovered their untended herds of cows had multiplied on an enormous scale.
Goodnight and Loving drove their herds north to markets in Colorado to sell to hungry railroad workers and the US Army.
The cattle industry boomed and cows were transported by rail, and towns grew up along the paths of the cattle drives such as Abilene and Dodge City which grew in wealth.