To understand the beginning of cattle ranching in Western Canada, it is necessary to look across the 49th parallel and follow the development of the great range herds in

the United States. These herds were the source of the foundation stock on the Western Canadian range. 10,000,000 Longhorn cattle were trailed out of Texas to the northern states between 1866 and 1885 following the American Civil War. With the conclusion of the American Indian Wars in 1877, Longhorn cattle flowed further north into Wyoming and Montana.
May 1873 saw  the  establishment  of  the

North West Mounted Police by the government of Canada. The Mounted Police officers soon carried stories to Eastern Canada about endless square miles of ungrazed grass, excellent water supplies, and Chinook winds that melted the winter snow. This, combined with  the  signing  of  the  Blackfoot  Treaty  in  1877,  police

protection, and the availability of rangeland, set the stage for the cattle empires of early Western Canada.
The Texas Longhorn was introduced to Canada in 1876 when George Emerson brought a small herd north to Alberta from Montana. He trailed an additional  1,000  head  to  Alberta  in

1879. The ranching industry expanded rapidly in Alberta, and by 1884, the territory was home to an estimated 40,000 head of cattle. However, the railway reached Calgary in 1885, and this opened an eastern market for fat cattle and an easier route for breeding stock to move west. During the next 25 years ranchers moved away from the Longhorn in favor of the beefier looking, earlier maturing British breeds, and by 1903, the Longhorn had completely disappeared from Canada.
Several Canadian ranchers reintroduced Longhorns to Alberta from the United States in 1969. The reintroduction occured partly because of nostalgia, but was primarily due to the unique advantages of breeding Longhorn cattle. Since that time, the easy calving factor of the Texas Longhorn has made it a wise and viable option for the modern beef producer.

In recognition of the Longhorns' increasing presence in the Western Canadian beef industry, the Alberta Texas Longhorn Association was established in 1982 as an affiliate of the Texas Longhorn Breeders' Association of America, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and has been an association in Alberta ever since.