Great Western Cattle Trail 1890's

by Barbara Vaupel

Great Western Cattle Trail 1890's by Barbara Vaupel

Following the Civil War, Texas found itself with many long horned cattle, but no markets. The demand for beef in the Northeast was high. As the railhead in Kansas moved further west, four major trails developed from south to north. The last one formed was the Great Western. It entered Oklahoma at Doan's Crossing south of Altus and exited Oklahoma at the Kansas border northwest of Buffalo, going on to Dodge City, Kansas.

The painting depicts cattle crossing the Canadian River near Camargo in Dewey County. Through the 1880's and 1890's, over 300,000 head of cattle, 7,000 horses and over 1,000 men moved north on the Great Western each year. By that time, buffalo, the major source of food for the Indian tribes, had been depleted. The Apaches, Kiowas and Comanches lived on the cattle going north. It was common to negotiate the number of beeves for the privilege of crossing their lands and grazing on their grasses. As the railroad developed through Texas and Oklahoma these cattle trails soon became unnecessary.

Great Western Cattle Trail 1890's by Barbara Vaupel was dedicated on February 9, 2000. The commission was managed by the Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc.

The painting is located outside the Oklahoma State Senate lounge on the fourth floor of the Oklahoma State Capitol and can be viewed daily from 8:30-5:30 when the Senate is not in session.

The Artist

Artist Barbara Vaupel Born in San Diego, California, Barbara Vaupel taught herself to draw. She took a night-school class in California with Floyd Chandler, who emphasized color and atmospheric progression. For a while she did advertisements and later proofread ads. But Vaupel wanted to paint horses - particularly quarter horses. "I never lived the life of raising and showing horses," she says. "But the next best thing to living the life is painting it!" Leaving friends and family behind, in 1967 she headed for Oklahoma. Her earliest horse portraits and rodeo scenes were done on commission. Among them was a portrait of retail wizard Sam Walton with his hunting dogs and pheasant. Recently, the landscapes dominate the horses on her canvases. "I guess that is because of my love of this Oklahoma countryside."

Along with gallery representation, Vaupel has shown in the Women Artist and the West exhibit, Tucson, AZ, and with the Texas Cowboy Artists. She is also included in An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, as well as named 1999 Outstanding Art Book, 38th Annual Western Heritage Awards. Vaupel, a Henryetta resident, passed away on December 27, 2006.