Riding for the Brand on the XIT

By Darla Bracken, fridarla19@yahoo.com

The capitol at Austin

According for XIT Ranch Rule #23 written by B. H. “BarBQ” Campbell in 1888: “It is the duty of every employee of the Company’s interests to the best of his ability, and when he sees they are threatened in any direction to take proper measure at his command to accomplish this end, and as soon as possible to inform his employers of the danger threatened..” These rules also included no personal horses to be fed by the Company and no more than 2 personal horses each, no hunting unless necessary for food, no running of game on Company horses, no gambling, no drinking, no freeloading i.e. visitors and vendors alike were expected to pay for or provide food for themselves while on the ranch.” (How different that is from today where corporations offer every manner of benefit, incentive, and perk even to their own demise?)

Maybe one of the most surprising rules of all was number 11: “ No employee of the Company, or of any contractor doing work for the Company, is permitted to carry on or about his person or in his saddlebags, any pistol, dirk (long bladed knife), dagger, slingshot, knuckles, Bowie knife, or any other similar instruments for the purpose of offense or defense. Guests of the Company, and persons not employees of the ranch temporarily staying at any of its camps, are expected to comply with this rule, which is also State Law.”

3 million acres of unsettled Panhandle grassland, considered expendable by many in the state as ‘desert’, were traded in exchange for building the red granite Capitol Building that still graces Austin today, second in size only to the U S Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. In 1882 the XIT Ranch was formed containing all or parts of ten Texas counties: Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Parmer, Lamb, Castro, Bailey, Cochran and Hockley creating the legend that XIT stood for ‘ten counties in Texas’. In fact, the brand was developed by Abner P. Blocker because it would be hard to alter or “burn off” and may have meant big in Texas. (I prefer the legend myself.) The brand was large, 5 inches tall, and on the right thigh. Company cattle were also branded with the last digit of the year on the right shoulder and the number of the division on the right jaw. Cattle rustlers, like computer hackers, persisted and eventually came up with the Texas Star from the XIT. (See illustration). The first cattle came in July 1885–110,721 head up from Mexico at a value of $1,322,587. The ranch usually branded 35,000 head at spring and fall roundups–at about 500 head per day.

8 Divisions

There were 8 divisions on the XIT which each operated as separate ranches: 1) Buffalo Springs, in uppermost northern Dallam County, was the steer pasture where 12,500 head annually were acclimated before driven to the colder northern pastures in Wyoming and Montana. 2) Middlewater in Hartley County just south of Dalhart was the steer pasture for the cutbacks or culls held waiting to be shipped. 3) Ojo Bravo (Bold Springs) in Hartley County was the prettiest part of the ranch and the breeding range for high grade cattle. 4) Rita Blanca (Little White River) southwest of Channing, was used as a beef range. 5) Escarbada (the scraping) in far southwestern Deaf Smith County held graded cattle. 6) Spring Lake, in northern Lamb County, was a breeding range. 7) Casas Amarillas (Yellow Houses) in southern Lamb County was a general breeding pasture and had the world’s tallest windmill at the time—130 feet. 8) Bovina (Bull Town) in central Parmer County was the last division to be added, 10 years after the others, as a shipping point on the Pecos & North Texas Railroad in 1898. Alamositas was later developed as a test site for electric fencing and a telephone line. Main headquarters were at Channing, a major shipping point, that developed on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad in 1887.

Legacy of the Longhorn

The XIT Ranch heritage began with the gaunt and wiry wild Texas Longhorn. Introduced to Texas in 1693 after Father Massanet deserted his East Texas mission, longhorns were the economic salvation of Texas after the Civil War. The breed handled drought, travel and thirst much better than other breeds. Their hoofs were tougher, their legs longer and their appetites allowed a much wider variety of wild grasses on the range. They were easier to handle both on the trail and at roundup. They traveled easier because of the breadth of their horns–being further apart there was less heat and stress. They had their teeth longer and lived nearly twice as long as other breeds. They were extremely sensitive in sight, hearing and smell. A newborn longhorn if scared off from his birth spot would return to the exact spot as would his mother to find him. They were extremely attached to their native soil (as are most Texans) and would return from hundreds of miles away if given the opportunity. One such Longhorn, Old Blue, led the drives to Wyoming and Montana for 8 seasons, because the other cattle would follow him so well. He never went to market and always returned with the remuda to the Ranch.

Although later mixed with other breeds such as Hereford Shorthorn and Aberdeen-Angus, the hardy longhorn breed left its mark forever on Texas cattle.

End of an Era

At its peak the XIT Ranch had 150,000 head of cattle, 1,000 head of horses and 150 cowboys. By 1900 there were 325 windmills and 100 dams on the ranch. Some 8 million head were driven north from the XIT to market. “Windmillers” held a special place on the Ranch having their own chuck wagons and traveling around to keep the mills running. The Ranch killed beef for the chuck wagons averaging about one every 3rd or 4th day–but a strict accounting was kept and nothing was wasted. Cowboys earned between $25 and $30 per month (‘a dollar a day on beans and hay’) and faced fence cutting, cattle rustling and wild predators mainly wolves. Because of such difficulties not to mention the hardship of droughts, blizzards, prairie fires and declining cattle markets (sound familiar?), the XIT operated mostly without profit during most of its life span, 1882-1912. The last lands were sold in 1963 but for the most part, mineral rights were kept.

Friona Centennial City Art Project

Plans are underway to honor our ranching heritage and the cattle industry including the Longhorn breed and the important role all of them have played in our city’s history. A fiberglass longhorn steer will be placed in the City Park in a project sponsored by the Friona Art Association & Friona Community Heritage Society (Depot) and is being funded by our area feed yards, including Friona Feed Yard, New Tex Feed Yard, Paco Feed Yard, Texzona Feed Yard and Cargill Meat Solutions and other cattle related industries. Our little community, which began as a humble shipping point on the immense XIT Ranch, still exists now 100 years later and has a division of one of the largest meat packing companies in the world located here. Let’s celebrate! If you wish to participate, please contact me by email, 250-3200 or at 109 W 7th.