Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, two seasoned Texas cowmen and neighbors 60 miles west of Fort Worth, combined their herds for the first major cattle drive to a northern destination after the Civil War. To avoid the Staked Plains and Comanches, they followed the old Butterfield Stage route southwest to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River, turning north along the Pecos to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, then on to Denver.

Comanches had used Horsehead Crossing for 180 years as a major plunder trail bringing herds of horses from Mexico to the heart of Comancheria. The crossing, the first reliable water source for many miles, was the site of many stampedes by both cattle and horses. Often thirsty horses died drinking the alkaline river water or when stampeding into the river. Horse skulls lined the river bank — thus the name "Horsehead Crossing."

On their third drive, Loving was wounded by Comanches and died at Fort Sumner. For eight more years, Goodnight honored his partnership with Loving by trailing cattle along this route with Loving's three sons. Also used extensively by other drovers, the Goodnight-Loving Trail extended north into Wyoming.