Pitchfork Ranch
Dickens, Dickens County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Irish-born, Jerry Savage established an open range ranch at this site about 1879. In 1881, St. Louis businessman Eugene F. Williams and Texas cattleman Dan B. Gardner purchased the ranch and in 1883 joined forces with landholder Sam Lazarus to form the Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company, Inc. Williams' heirs later acquired controlling interest of the cattle empire. The first structures here were dugouts in the river bank, while the present buildings date from 1902. Pitchfork Ranch has doubled its original size to 165,000 acres and now operates ranches in Kansas and Wyoming. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
About 1879, Irish immigrant Jerry Savage opened an open-range ranch on this West Texas ground. Within a few years St. Louis businessman Eugene F. Williams and cattlemen Dan B. Gardner and Sam Lazarus consolidated the holdings into the Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company in 1883. From dugouts cut into the riverbank the operation grew into a cattle empire whose permanent headquarters date to 1902, eventually swelling to 165,000 acres.
Why it matters
The Pitchfork is one of the great surviving ranches of the American West, a living link to the open-range era that defined Texas cattle country.
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Related people
- · Jerry Savage
- · Eugene F. Williams
- · Dan B. Gardner
Related events
- · Founding of the Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company
Themes & tags
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