![]() ![]() The Farwell brothers from Chicago entered the contest and won. The Texas government held a contest to decide who could make the best capitol for the state.The brand ‘XIT’ was the idea of Ab Blocker, a trail driver who persuaded management by telling them that it would be hard for cattle rustlers to change their brand and make it their own.The ranch employed more than 100 cowboys, and was organized into seven divisions with a headquarters at Channing.The first 22,000 cattle arrived from Fort Concho in 1885 and the number eventually grew to 150,000.The XIT Ranch still stands today, however much smaller, with a museum and many activities in Dalhart, Texas.However, because it was unused and there were several buffalo and cattle grazing the lands, they decided to make it a Ranch. The XIT Ranch was originally made off of public lands owned by the government.In 1963, the last parcel of land is owned by Hamlin Y. By 1929, the XIT Ranch owned about 450,000 acres (compared to 3 million), while 14 years later, in 1943, they only owned 350,000 acres.Because of the constant increase in prices of land, the land of the XIT was sold, and on November 1st, 1912, the XIT Ranch sold it’s last cattle.In order to mark their cattle from the rest, the XIT Ranchers simply write ‘XIT’ on their cattle, because they have no specific symbol.They are Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Panner, Castro, Bailey, Lamb, Cochran, and Hockley. XIT stands for “Ten in Texas” because it stretches along 10 counties in Texas.This Ranch was founded in 1885 by Charlie V.There are more than 150,000 cattle and 1,000 horses in the XIT Ranch! However, they have no (zero) goats or sheeps.It stretches along the Texas Panhandle, and extends into the Oklahoma Panhandle. During the 1800’s, the XIT Ranch was the largest fenced Ranch in the world, with over 3,000,000 acres.It is the one volume that, more than any other, portrays the early-day cattle business of the West. 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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