Richmond Chapter 8: The Cattle Trade: Trail Herds, Towns, and Ranchers

This chapter was a short overview of the beginnings and changes in the cattle industry in Kansas. Miner writes of the unique characteristics of the various cattle towns in Kansas. When I was reading about the cattle drives and how the sound could be heard for a very long time before the cattle were visible, I thought of a learning activity that might engage my students.

The mental image I got when reading this told me that it would make for a good children's book. My students would research life in Kansas along the cattle trails. They will then write a story geared for elementary students. The story will be fiction but, through it, important historical information will be passed along. We could take the books to the elementary school and have my students read them to the younger kids.