Charles Goodnight and his business partner John Adair established the JA Ranch, the first cattle ranch in the Texas panhandle in 1877 in the Palo Duro Canyon area. In 1887, Goodnight established the Goodnight-Thayer Cattle Company in present Armstrong County and built a spacious Victorian-style two-story ranch house. The Goodnight home is restored on its original site and features a 268-square-foot second-floor sleeping porch with spectacular views of the countryside and the nearby bison herd that are actual descendants of the herd raised by Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight.
The Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site includes the J. Evetts Haley Visitor and Education Center, which offers exhibits about the Goodnights, bison, and the settlement of the area. A Quanah Parker Trail giant arrow marker on the grounds serves to commemorate the friendship between Charles Goodnight and Quanah Parker, last Chief of the Comanche.
From the Blog
Dozens of arrows, 22 feet tall, pierce the landscape of the Panhandle Plains. They commemorate Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanche (Nʉmʉnʉʉ), and the territory called Comanchería where his people lived. Parker was the son of a Quahada Comanche man and a white woman, a heritage that made a lasting impact on his life.
His mother was Cynthia Ann Parker, who was famously...
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