First Day Issue Stamp Cache Envelope Enclosure Charles Goodnight Western Legend

Description: First Day of Issue Stamp Cache Envelope Enclosure Charles Goodnight A Legend of the West 29¢ Tucson AZ Oct 18 1994 Charles Goodnight A Legend of the West Born into a farm family in southern Illinois, Charles Goodnight (1836- 1929) moved to Texas with his family in 1846. Not long after he arrived he and a step brother began to learn the cattle business and in 1856 contracted themselves out to a neighbor who agreed to give them one call for every four born to the herd they managed Goodnight learned to locate water by watching the flight of swallows He also learned he could ease thirst on the arid plains by sucking on a bullet and that a chew of tobacco dulled his hunger pains. He discovered that boiled flour and prairie dog made a delicious and nutritious soup and the freshness of a footprint could be judged by the insect tracks that crossed it. He also learned which grasses put weight on beef and the crucial value of owning water in an arid land. From 1861-64 he abandoned his meager cattle operation and served the Confederacy in the Texas Rangers, defending the frontier against Comanche and Kiowa Indians. When he returned from Confederate service, he discovered that the few hundred longhorns he had left behind had multiplied into the thousands. Charles Goodnight, like many Texans of the 1960s owned thousands of wild longhorn cattle but had no easy way to get them to the lucrative eastern markets He had courted closer potential buyers the military posts posts and mining towns of New Mexico and Colorado) and while he had been moderately successful in sales closer to him. New Mexico and Colorado lay beyond Indian country and the parched plains that he was assured were unfit for travel by man or longhorn He knew, however, if he could tap these markets he would become immensely wealthy. Determined, when he met an experienced drover by the name of Oliver Loving, they rounded up (in 1866) 2,000 head of longhorn cattle and headed for Colorado, 600 miles west and north. When only hall-way there, they confronted an 80-mile stretch utterly devoid of water. For nearly three days the cattle baron and crew drove their animals almost non-stop by the hundreds the cattle died. Nearing the Pecos River, the crazed beasts smelling the water. stampeded toward it, trampling each other, many drowning upon arrival. and miring in quicksand But there were survivors and they sold readily. The drive launched Charles Goodnight as one of the first great cattle barons and established the Goodnight Loving Trail as one of the great highways of the many Texas long-drives that were to follow. In 1870 Goodnight was financially comfortable and branched out to banking and ranching in Colorado which failed. By 1876 it had become apparent that he had to start all over and drove his few remaining cattle single file down the walls of Palo Duro Canyon, south of Amarillo and began ranching operations as the green and well watered valley floor Within five years he owned the immense valley as well as the land on either side to the horizon. He then attracted capital and built an immense empire and grazed upwards of 100,000 head of cattle. He imported white-faced Herefords to improve the quality as well as the quantity of his own herds, and they replaced the longhorn throughout the West He blazed a cattle trail to the Dodge City railhead and for eight seasons the herds followed his famous lead steer, "Ole hue off to market and greater riches. With typical vision, Goodnight protected a small herd of Palo Duro's southern bison from extinction by hide hunters, and today their genes strengthen the herd at Yellowstone and elsewhere where the great animal is making a comeback. He crushed these animals with his cattle and attempted to establish the cattalo. In 1883 a Kansas newspaper cites Goodnight's spread as Texas largest with more than 700,000 acres (larger than several of the eastern states). He also was un influential backer of Texas statehood and died at 93 as the prototypical western cattle baron. Features: • First Day of Issue Stamp Cache Envelope and Enclosure • Made in USA Condition: Pre-Owned Good

Price: 6.95 USD

Location: Humble, Texas

End Time: 2025-01-08T03:08:33.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.25 USD