David & I have been doing a lot of reading lately about the Plains Indians and the history of the Panhandle region in the late 1800’s. We’ve read books about Quannah Parker, Kit Carson, Charles Goodnight, and various Indian wars. We wanted to visit the region where these various characters carved out history on the open plains and in the canyons of the Palo Dura region. We left the Waco area and had a stopover at Abilene State Park before heading north into the panhandle.
Our first stop was to be the Goodnight Ranch but along the way David noticed an historical marker on his map that we had to go and check out.
Our next stop was the restored Goodnight Ranch where Charles Goodnight built this house for his wife Mary Ann out on the Texas prairie. This was quite a feat in that there were no roads at the time, materials were hauled in from Colorado and the gulf coast, and the fact that Charles and Mary Ann had been living in a dirt hut near Palo Dura canyon for several years. Charles had become famous for building a huge cattle ranch and blazing cattle drive trails during this time and Mary Ann was instrumental in preserving some of the native bison herd that had been so destroyed by the Indians and buffalo hunters.
Our resting stop for the night was the Lake Meredith Recreation Area, a large reservoir of blue water in the desolate panhandle where we enjoyed a pretty sunset over the lake.
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Looks like a lot of neat history