FIRST HEREFORDS ON THE RANGE 707 



From this herd large numbers of purebred bulls 

 went out to spread the fame of the " white faces" 

 throughout the northern range. All the more 

 enterprising breeders of Montana and Wyoming had 

 recourse to it, and while it made no money for its 

 owners it placed within the reach of the cattlemen 

 of the north blood that left its mark for many a 

 year. Under different ownership the herd is still 

 maintained. 



First Herefords in the Panhandle. It seems to 

 be generally allowed that the credit for the revo- 

 lutionizing of the blood of the Texas Panhandle 

 herds along Hereford lines is largely due to Charles 

 Goodnight, whose career as a scout and pioneer on 

 the old frontier would supply material enough for 

 a stirring volume on the development of the great 

 southwest. He embraced cattle-breeding as a pro- 

 fession in 1856 in Palo Pinto Co., Tex., beginning 

 with 430 head and handling them on shares until the 

 Civil War. He early set about to improve them; 

 the only way open at that time was through selec- 

 tion, but by this primitive means he succeeded in 

 producing what was doubtless one of the best herds 

 in Texas at that time. When the war came on he 

 joined the Texas rangers, and served against the 

 Comanches and Kiowas. 



In 1886 he laid off the "Goodnight Trail," by 

 way of the Pecos River through Colorado to Chey- 

 enne, Wyo. He settled in 1870 near Pueblo, Colo. 

 From here he removed to the Panhandle in the fall 

 of 1876, establishing in what is known as the Palo 

 Duro Canyon of the Eed River the JA Ranch, with 



