 The Best Great Western Cattle Trail was first traveled by Captain John T. Lytle in 1874 when he was transporting 3,500 longhorn cattle up from Southern Texas into Nebraska.In five short years, it became one of the most traveled and famous Cattle Trails in U.S. history.Despite its popularity, traffic along the trail began to decline in 1885 due to the spreading use of barbed wire fences and the legislation calling for a quarantine of Texas cattle due to the "Texas Fever" - a disease spread by a parasitic tick.