Goodnight's Panhandle Home To Be Restored

Charles Goodnight was an Old West and Texas legend. Although born in Illinois in 1836, he moved to Texas at the age of 10. He served as a Texas Ranger, an Indian Scout, and a Civil War Scout.

After the war, he and his partner Oliver Loving put together a cattle drive to New Mexico that created what came to be known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail. After the death of Loving, Goodnight later extended the famous trail to Colorado and then Wyoming. In preparation for that first cattle drive, Goodnight reconstructed an old Army wagon and made changes to it. The result has come to be known as a chuckwagon, and it became a necessity for any cattle drive.

He later partnered with John Adair to creat the JA Ranch in what is now known as the Palo Duro Canyon. The ranch ran over 100,000 head of cattle and covered a million acres. The ranch homes of Goodnight and Adair have been preserved by the Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

In 1889, he left the partnership and started in own ranch in Armstrong County (about 40 miles east of Amarillo). It was on this ranch that he became the first rancher in the Panhandle to use barbed wire, He lived in the frame house on that ranch until his death in 1929.

It is that house on the south side of U.S. Highway 287 that is currently being restored. The Armstrong County Museum has raised about $1.8 million dollars and has already started on the restoration. The property belongs to the museum and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The museum is going to restore the house to the way it was when the Goodnights lived there. They have been donated some of the Goodnight's furniture, and are looking for other period pieces to finish furnishing the house.

The house will serve as the centerpiece to the Charles Goodnight Historical Center. A Visitor's Center and a caretaker's home will also be built, and an endowment will be created to pay for day-to-day operations. To complete all of this, the museum will need another $600,000.

I think this whole thing is a wonderful idea. Too often, we Americans let our history decay and disappear, and that is a shame, because we have a rich and varied history that we should be proud to pass on to future generations. Charles Goodnight was an important part of that history here in the Panhandle.

I hope the museum can find the funds to complete their project, and to do it right.

Panhandle Sheriff To Be Investigated

It looks like there's another Texas Panhandle sheriff in trouble. It's only been a year since Potter County Sheriff Michael Shumate was convicted of accepting bribes to award the jail commissary contract. He was sentenced to six months in jail and eight years of probation (which he is currently serving). Now it looks like the sheriff of neighboring Armstrong County may be in trouble.

Armstrong County is a thinly populated county located about 30 miles south and east of Amarillo. There are only about 2,148 people according to the 2000 census (about 2 people per square mile). The county seat is Claude (population 1,313).

The sheriff of Armstrong County for the last eight years has been J.R. Walker. Sometime in the last two weeks, he had an altercation with one of his deputies and wound up firing the deputy. The deputy says Sheriff Walker assaulted him during the altercation, and reported the assault to 47th District Attorney Randall Sims.

Since Sims prosecuting area includes Armstrong County, and asked 47th District Court Judge Hal Miner to appoint a special prosecutor. The special prosecutor is asking the Texas Rangers to investigate the charge.

An interesting sidelight to this is the fact that the convicted Potter County sheriff, Michael Shumate, served his jail time in Armstrong County.