| Charles Goodnight of Texas always
seemed to be a step or two ahead of other ranchers in finding ways to expand
and improve his cattlc business. With his partner, Oliver Loving, Goodnight
pioneered the Goodnight-Loving trail by driving some 2,000 longhorns out
of south Texas to the Pecos River and on north to New Mexico and Colorado.
In that year of 1866, most Texas ranchers hoped to find a market for their
cattle in Missouri; but Goodnight, who was never one to follow the crowd,
had his eye on New Mexico, where government agents needed beef to feed
the Navaho and Apache who were living on reservations there.
On the long, brutal drive to New Mexico,
Goodnight and his partner lost around 100 cattle when the thirst crazed
animals, who had gone without water tor three days, stampeded and plunged
into the Pecos River, drowning or trampling themselves to death. After
selling part of his surviving herd to agents in New Mexico, Loving drove
the rest to Colorado to supply the gold and copper miners with beef, while
Goodnight went back to Texas for more cattle. When Loving died from an
infected arrow wound, Goodnight continucd to drive his herds north until
1868, when he built a huge ranch in Colorado at a time that most ranchers
doubted that cattle could survive on those high northern plains. Instead
ot relying on grass alone to feed his cattle, Goodnight planted corn, and
he also developed an orchard to provide fruit for his ranch.
When cattle prices fell during the economic
panic of 1873, Goodnight lost almost everything he owned, but his pionecring
spirit remained intact. Taking what remained of his vast herds---about
1,600 longhorns- he decided to make a new start in the Texas Panhandle,
an area in the northwest region of the state that was shunned by other
ranchers because it was considered too arid to support cattle. The persistent
Goodnight explored this country until he found a hidden, well-watered valley
called Palo Duro. After he obtained financing from an Irish moneylender
in Colorado named John Adair, Goodnight established his new Ranch. He upgraded
his cattle by cross-breeding skinny longhorns and fat Herefords until he
had devoloped one of the finest herds in the West. Within a few years,
more than 100,000 head of cattle were grazing in more than 550 square km.
of grassland.
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