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6666 Dixon Creek Ranch | Carson County | Last Great Panhandle Cattle Drive to Montana
6666 Dixon Creek Ranch
Marker Title: 6666 Dixon Creek Ranch
City: Panhandle
County: Carson
Year Marker Erected: 1965
Marker Location: from Panhandle, take SH 207 about 14 miles, north to roadside marker
Marker Text: Takes name from creek where noted buffalo hunter and scout Billy Dixon established first dugout home on High Plains, 1874. Ranch founded, 1882, by Francklyn Land and Cattle Co., English firm backed by Cunard Steamship Co. Fenced, 1884, with barbed wire hauled here from railroad at Dodge City; posts were of Palo Duro Canyon cedars. Purchased in 1903 by S. Burk Burnett (1849-1922), trail driver, rancher; an organizer and for 45 years on executive board, Texas Cattle Raisers Association. Host during 1905 wolf hunt to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. (1965) (Ranch not open to public.)
Carson County
Marker Title: Carson County
City: Panhandle
County: Carson
Year Marker Erected: 1965
Marker Location: Main and Fifth Street, on courthouse grounds, Panhandle
Marker Text: Created 1876. Organized 1888. Named for Samuel Price Carson, Secretary of State, Republic of Texas. A pioneer county in oil and gas development. Panhandle, county seat, promised main lines of 3 railroads, was by-passed for Amarillo, yet became one of the 4 historic towns in Texas Panhandle.
Last Great Panhandle Cattle Drive to Montana
Marker Title: Last Great Panhandle Cattle Drive to Montana
City: Panhandle
County: Carson
Year Marker Erected: 1965
Marker Location: 5th and Elsie Street, SH 207, Square House Museum, Panhandle.
Marker Text: Each spring and summer after 1880, many Texas herds went up the trail to Northern states for fattening. For the cowboys, trail drives meant hard work. They had to turn stampedes, ford rivers and quicksand streams, and fight Indians and cattle thieves. They endured hunger, thirst, and other physical hardships. The Last Great Texas Panhandle Drive was organized here at N Bar N (N-N) Headquarters. Ranch manager was J.L. Harrison; trail boss, T.L. (Tom) Coffee. 100 cowboys drove 10 herds, each with 2500 cattle, or a total of 25,000 beeves, to Montana from April to September 1892. The cattle belonged to Niedringhaus Brothers, German tinsmiths of St. Louis, who put into ranching a fortune made in enamel granite household wares. From 1882 to 1886, N Bar N leased range in Carson and neighboring counties from the Francklyn Land & Cattle Company, a British syndicate backed by Cunard Steamship Line. Afterward this range belonged to White Deer Land Company. The N Bar N outfit left here because White Deer Land Company wanted the range cleared of large herds. By 1907 the 650,000 acres of its land was offered for sale to small ranchers and farmers. It was fenced and the steam plow introduced to turn the rich, grassy sod.
