Happy! - Mar 5 (Charles Goodnight)

05 Mar 06 - 08:41 AM (#1685540)
Subject: Happy! - Mar 5 (Charles Goodnight)
From: Abby Sale


Happy Birthday!

Charles Goodnight,

born 3/5/1836
(d.12/12/1929)

was a Texas Ranger, cattle rancher, and powerful figure in the Texas Panhandle. He lived an active life from his early years, when he fought Indians on the frontier. Goodnight established ranches and cattle trails in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado, and in 1876 started a ranch in Texas that eventually covered nearly a million acres of range. He organized a stockmen's association to pacify the Panhandle, and was also a breeder of Angus cattle, crossing them with buffalo to produce the cattalo. [Grolier]

          Too old to wrangle or ride on the swing,
          You beat the triangle and you curse everything.
          If dirt was a kingdom, they you'd be the king.
  
             On the Goodnight Trail, on the Loving Trail,
             Our Old Woman's lonesome tonight.
  
                  "The Goodnight-Loving Trail," Bruce Phillips

The trail (worth looking up) is still marked on many maps of Texas. Of course there's a ' Goodnight Trail Street' in half the towns in the state, but that's different.

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