As the Friars abandoned more than 50 missions in Texas, they also left behind the herds of Longhorn Cattle that had prospered and multiplied in the wild grasslands. Just before the Mexican Revolution, Moses Austin had gotten approval for American colonists to settle in this part of Mexico - immigrants began to pour into the area.

These newcomers discovered around 100,000 hardy, wild cattle roaming the area of Tejas. Beefsteak on the hoof! This was a resorce too good to believe, and some of the early settlers learned from the Mexicans and Indians how to rope the long-horned beasts from horseback.

There was no transportation in early Texas - no way to move products to far-away markets. It didn't take long to figure out that cattle were the only product around that provided their own transportation to market! By the 1830s the trade in Texas cattle was booming and providing prosperity to the immigrants. Fortunes began to accumulate for hard working drovers who persevered and survived!