American Longhorn Cow

"The Texas Longhorn was bred not by man but shaped by nature and man benefited." J. Frank Dobie

In 1493, Christopher Columbus brought Spanish cattle to Santa Domingo, and within two hundred years their descendents would be grazing the ranges of Mexico. In 1690, the first herd of cattle, only about 200 head, were driven northward from Mexico to a mission near the Sabine River-a land that would become known as Texas.
Longhorns carried the ideal characteristics of hardiness for they were tremendous for long drives. They could go incredible distances without water, rustle their own food, fend for themselves, swim rivers, survive the desert sun and winter snow.
By the time of the Civil War, nearly 300 years after setting foot in America, millions of Longhorns ranged between the mesquite-dotted sandy banks of the Rio Bravo to the sandbeds of the Sabine. However, at the turn of the century, sundown came for the Texas Longhorn. It took less than 40 years, fenced in land, plows and an overwhelming demand in the marketplace to drive the Longhorn closer to extinction than the buffalo. In 1927, the Federal government helped to preserve the Texas Longhorn and a save a great part of America's heritage. Now, thanks to strict conservation and the efforts of private breeders there are believed to be around 250,000 Longhorns in the United States.