At the start of the 19th century, there was no Texas as we know it today. Rather, west of Louisiana—the French colony-turned-state at the conclusion of the War of 1812—was a dry and rugged patchwork of native American and Mexican-held lands. After two rounds of war with Mexico and a period of independence, Texas became a U.S. state in 1845.
This was fortuitous timing, for 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝, 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 1836, and was poised to help develop the wild countryside.
In 1875, the United States’ first commercial wood-treatment facility was constructed by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad company in West Pascagoula, Mississippi, to creosote-treat timbers that had been attacked by a shipworm that destroys underwater pilings called teredo. But when the L&N bought the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Railroad in 1881, it pivoted to pressure-treating crossties due to rising demand for wooden crossties that could last in all types of environments, including the extremely hot and arid land of Texas.
No wonder the 1880s marked the end of the cowboy lifestyle—by then cowboys no longer needed to “drive” their 2,000+ head of cattle across uncharted territories.
In this article, we review:
🛤 Transporting Cattle: The “Cattle Drive” Solution
🛤 Railroads Replace Cowboys
🛤 Meeting Demand for Pressure-Treated Crossties Across Texas
To read the full story, visit:
https://lnkd.in/erwhX9rK
President & CEO, Sunwest Aviation
1moThank you to all the maintenance crews who plow through the day and night to give us clear, safe roads. You move mountains of snow, literally. For example, every 1 km of an average, two-lane highway with a snow depth of 10 cm holds approximately 148,000 kg of snow.