The Charles Goodnight Memorial Trail
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The highway from this museum to the Palo Duro State Park (12 miles east) approximates course used by Charles Goodnight, outstanding Texas cowman and trail blazer, when he trailed 1600 cattle from Colorado to found first ranch on the staked plains of Texas in 1876. He entered precipitous Palo Duro Canyon by way of old Comanche Indian trail; drove thousands of buffalo from what is now park area; established his home ranch a few miles farther down canyon. Goodnight was born in Illinois, March 5, 1836. At age of 9 he rode bareback to Texas behind covered wagon driven by his parents; he hunted with Caddo Indians beyond the frontier at 14; guided Texas Rangers fighting Comanche and Kiowas at 25; blazed cattle trails about 2,000 miles long with Oliver Loving at 30. In partnership with John G. Adair, he expanded his original Palo Duro ranch into the giant JA and other holdings of more than a million acres and 100,000 cattle. He preserved the buffalo, founded a college, encouraged the settlement of the plains and led in a long fight for law and order. This foremost plainsman died March 12, 1929; and is buried at Goodnight, Texas. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This route retraces the path Charles Goodnight rode in 1876 when he drove 1,600 cattle down from Colorado into the sheltering depths of Palo Duro Canyon to found the first ranch on the Texas Staked Plains. Born in Illinois in 1836 and hardened on the frontier, Goodnight blazed some 2,000 miles of cattle trail with partner Oliver Loving, built the vast JA Ranch with John Adair, and became the archetype of the Texas cowman. He also preserved a buffalo herd, founded a college, and fought for law and order until his death in 1929.
Why it matters
Goodnight helped invent the cattle-ranching West, and his trails and open-range empire are foundational chapters in the story of American expansion onto the Great Plains.
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Related people
- · Charles Goodnight
- · Oliver Loving
- · John G. Adair
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Wagon Yard
Canyon, TX
From about 1890 to 1921 this Canyon wagon yard was the working headquarters for ranchmen come to town, who slept in their bedrolls or a room above the office and cooked over a campfire in the yard. It cost a dime to stable a horse and fifty cents for a man; feed and coal were for sale, water was free, and hands were hired and horses doctored on the spot.
City of Canyon
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Surveyed on Christmas Day 1887 by L. G. Conner and named for nearby Palo Duro Canyon, Canyon rose against the Panhandle's snow, sandstorms, and grasshopper plagues. Early settlers strung the first telephone line on barbed-wire fence posts, and the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1898 made the town a cattle-shipping powerhouse that claimed some of the largest shipments in the world. In 1910 West Texas State University opened here, and town and school have grown side by side ever since.
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