Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Charles Goodnight
GOODNIGHT, CHARLES (1836–1929), inducted between 1920–1936
“The Father of the Texas Panhandle,” Charlie Goodnight was a true legend of the American West. Born in Illinois, his family moved to Texas when he was ten years old. As a young man, he became a cowboy and militiaman, defending ranchers from Comanche raiders. He joined the Texas Rangers and then served as a Confederate soldier. After participating in the round-up to recover cattle left to roam during the Civil War, he imagined a new market for Texas cattle, to replace the war-ravaged South. Partnering with Kentucky-native Oliver Loving, they led 2,000 head to blaze a new trail to New Mexico, selling the cattle to the US Army. Goodnight is credited with building the first chuckwagon for their inaugural cattle drive. More drives would follow over several years, extending what became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail into Colorado and later Wyoming. Goodnight and Loving’s third cattle drive was fictionalized in Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove (published 1985).
After Loving’s death along the trail, Goodnight established his Home Ranch in 1876, the first ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Soon thereafter, he formed a partnership with Irish investor, John Adair, to found the JA Ranch. In less than a decade, JA Ranch had grown to 1,325,000 acres and more than 100,000 head. A pioneer in cattle breeding, Goodnight crossed scrawny Texas longhorns with Herefords, resulting in one of the nation’s finest herds. He also crossed buffalo with polled Angus—the first “cattalo.” He established the Panhandle Stockmen’s Association and two schools in the town of Goodnight, Texas. His final stock operation, Goodnight Ranch, became a major tourist attraction and wildlife preserve, where he raised herds of buffalo, elk, and antelope to ship to Yellowstone National Park and zoos. This legend of the West died at age ninety-three. Often called “Colonel,” Goodnight was one of the original five men voted into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1958.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 98