![]() ![]() Goodnight managed and expanded the ranch, while Adair provided the working capital. The name “JA” is derived from the initials of John Adair, a businessman from Ireland. At its peak size in 1883, the JA, still run by descendants of the Adair family, encompassed some 1,335,000 acres (5,400 km2) of land in six counties and a herd of 100,000 cattle. Jointly founded by John George Adair and Charles Goodnight, is the oldest privately owned cattle operation in the Palo Duro Canyon section of the Texas Panhandle southeast of Amarillo. Comprising over 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km²) of land, it ran for two hundred miles (300 km) along the border with New Mexico, varying in width from 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 km). The XIT Ranch was a cattle ranch in the Panhandle of Texas which operated from 1885 to 1912. Dalhart has an XIT Museum and hosts an XIT Rodeo. The city of Dalhart has called itself the “XIT City” since at least 1939-1940-long after dissolution of the famous ranch. The XIT Ranch (the name is from how the cattle were branded) existed from 1885, but effectively was disbanded by the early 1900s after several unprofitable attempts to raise cattle. The incredibly large XIT Ranch was 3,000,000 acres and was traded to its owners so that Texas could pay for the construction of just one building-the state capitol in Austin. Location is about 35 miles south of Amarillo, next to entrance to Palo Duro State Park. Certain group size minimums and age minimums apply. Chuck wagon breakfasts, under the Cowboy Morning name, and dinners are offered from April through October. Jeep rides, weather permitting, are available year round. It is the one volume that, more than any other, portrays the early-day cattle business of the West.A fifth generation working cattle ranch comprised of thousands of acres of rugged range and scenic canyon land that remains virtually untouched from the late 1800’s. The XIT Ranch of Texas is the epic account of a ranching operation about which many know a little but only a few very much. It is the story of a wild prairie, roamed by Indians, buffalo, mustangs, and antelope, that became a country of railroads, oil fields, prosperous farms, and carefully bred herds of cattle. Evetts Haley, now made available to readers every The development and operation of this pastoral enterprise and its relation to the history of Texas is the subject of this great and widely discussed book by J. This "desert" became a legend in the cattle business, and it remains today a memory to thousands who recall the era when mustangs and longhorns grazed beneath the brand of the XIT. The state of Texas patented this huge rectangle of land, at the time considered by many to be part of "the great American desert," to the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company of Chicago, in exchange for funds to erect the state capitol building in Austin. It was not the first ranch in West Texas, but after its formation in the eighteen-eighties it became the largest single operation in the cow country of the Old West and covered more than three million acres, all fenced. And the greatest of these was XIT -The XIT Ranch of Texas. Among the famous ranch brands of Texas are the T Anchor, JA, Diamond Tail, 777, Bar C, and XIT. ![]()
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