The Ranch That Started the Panhandle

Charles Goodnight knew the Palo Duro long before he ranched it. He had ridden through it as a scout for the Texas Rangers, and he understood what the canyon offered: natural shelter from winter winds, fresh water from the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, and grass — miles of it — on the plains above.

In the summer and fall of 1876, he drove 1,600 longhorn cattle from Pueblo, Colorado, down into the canyon and established what he called his Home Ranch in southwestern Armstrong County. He wintered his men and cattle there, then returned to Colorado to retrieve his wife, Mary Ann.

In Denver, he met John G. Adair.

John Adair was Irish and well-educated; he ran investment brokerage companies in Ireland and New York. His wife Cornelia was a New York socialite and daughter of a Union general. They were looking for investment opportunities in the American West and had been told Goodnight was the best man in Texas to run a cattle operation.

In the spring of 1877, the Goodnights and the Adairs rode together from Colorado to Palo Duro — four cowboys, 100 Durham bulls, four wagonloads of provisions. Cornelia Adair made the entire journey on horseback.

On June 18, 1877, before the Adairs left for Ireland, the two men drew up their contract. Adair would provide the capital. Goodnight would manage the operation, drawing an annual salary of $2,500. At the end of five years, two-thirds of the property and profits would go to Adair; one-third to Goodnight. Goodnight borrowed his share of the investment from Adair at 10 percent interest.

At Goodnight’s suggestion, the ranch was named for Adair’s initials. The JA brand, at first with the letters separated, later with the connected design still used today; was burned into the first herd. The separated J was used specifically on the purebred cattle to distinguish them from the main herd — a detail confirmed by the Adair family.

Goodnight wasted no time. He purchased the first 12,000 acres from Jot Gunter and William B. Munson, Sr., with the right to pick the land wherever he pleased. Over the next several years he continued buying choice pieces, acquiring properties across Randall, Armstrong, Donley, Hall, Briscoe, and Swisher counties.

By the time the first five-year contract expired in 1882, the partners had acquired 93,000 acres and the ranch had realized more than $512,000 in profits. They renewed for another five years. By the time John Adair died in 1885 — on his third visit to the JA — the ranch had grown to 1,325,000 acres and grazed more than 100,000 head of cattle.

Goodnight also introduced barbed wire fencing in 1882 and crossbred his cattle with Hereford bulls to improve the quality of the herd. He experimented with crossing Angus cows and bison, producing what he called “cattalos.”

While Charles ran the cattle operation, Mary Ann Goodnight was doing something equally significant. Bison had nearly disappeared from the Southern Plains by the late 1870s. She pushed Charles to capture and preserve a small herd rather than let them vanish entirely.

They did. That preserved herd became part of a lasting conservation legacy. One woman’s conviction about what was worth saving changed what the Texas landscape looks like today.

According to the ranch, “The JA donated the wild bison herd that was running on the JA ranch to Texas Parks and Wildlife. No bison remain on the JA. To the JA’s knowledge, these bison had run continually on the JA and there is no evidence that they came from the Goodnight bison herd that was maintained by Goodnight on his ranch in northern Armstrong County.”

Bison graze at Caprock Canyons State Park, where the Official Texas State Bison Herd now numbers more than 150 animals. Photo: Earl Nottingham / Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

After John Adair’s death, his widow Cornelia honored the remaining two years of their contract, then divided the assets with Goodnight in 1887. Goodnight went on to establish his own ranch in Armstrong County. Cornelia kept the JA.

Though she lived largely in Ireland and England, Cornelia took an intense personal interest in the JA for the rest of her life. She imported purebred Hereford cattle from England, insisted on a remuda of all bay horses, and contributed to civic projects throughout the Panhandle — funding the Adair Hospital in Clarendon and supporting the first YMCA building and Episcopal Church there.

The JA Ranch is still privately held today. It is a National Historic Landmark. It remains one of the oldest continuously operating cattle ranches in the Texas Panhandle.

The ranch has been substantially reduced from its 19th-century peak. By the mid-20th century, it had consolidated to approximately 335,000 acres across Armstrong, Briscoe, Donley, and Hall counties. It remains under the ownership of Cornelia Adair’s descendants — operated to this day without any oil and gas production on the property. Current cattle operations are primarily a cow/calf program, running Angus cows crossed on Charolais bulls, along with yearlings summered on a Colorado ranch.

The ranch’s headquarters was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and remains privately held, with the main house serving as the residence for Cornelia Adair’s descendants. The other buildings are used as residences and working facilities for ranch employees. The Charles Goodnight Historical Center, separate from the JA Ranch, serves as the museum dedicated to Charles Goodnight.