DUANE
Duane's take
Now, the marker tells it this way, and I'm just gonna pass it along to you straight. Way out here in the Texas Panhandle, there's an auction barn with a story that starts long before the first gavel ever fell. The Amarillo Livestock Auction was established to serve the first permanent industry this region ever knew — ranching.
And today it's famed for handling more cattle than any other commission auction company in the entire United States. Let that settle for a second. The whole country.
Right here in Potter County. But to understand how it got to that, you have to go back — way back — to a stretch of years that reshaped this land entirely. Between 1874 and 1878, Indians were expelled, the buffalo herds were exterminated, and ranches began taking root across the region.
Those early cattlemen ran Longhorns, and they trailed them all the way up to Dodge City just to find a railhead willing to ship them. Then the railroads started moving west, and ranchmen would ride the cattle trains themselves — riding along just to care for their herds en route to market. When railroad construction crossed the Texas Panhandle in 1887, Amarillo rose up as the largest rural cattle shipping point in the nation, a title it held from 1892 clear through 1897.
Then in 1904, a man named O.H. Nelson, along with Al Popham and associates, founded the Western Stockyards — the direct predecessor of what would become the Amarillo Livestock Auction. That was the first real step toward something more efficient, more organized.
But the auction itself — the market as it truly came to be — that didn't open until 1935. And when it did, it opened with thirty-six cattle and twenty-one horses, sold by auctioneer Jack Coulter while Virgil Light managed the floor. Modest beginnings for something that was about to become enormous.
In 1940, Jay Taylor and Eddie Johnson bought the Western Stockyards and constructed the present sales ring. Five years later, in 1945, it was incorporated as the Amarillo Livestock Auction Company. And what happened next, the marker calls it plainly: marketing was revolutionized.
Annual sales climbing past four hundred thousand cattle. Values exceeding seventy-eight million dollars. All of it traced back to a strip of plains where the buffalo once ran, and thirty-six head sold on opening day.
What the marker says
Established to serve the first permanent industry in the Texas Panhandle--ranching. Now famed for handling more cattle than any other commission auction company in the United States. The years 1874-1878 saw Indians expelled, buffalo herds exterminated, and ranches established in the region. Longhorns were trailed to Dodge City for shipment. After railroads came, ranchmen rode the cattle trains to care for herds en route to market. Railroad construction across the Texas Panhandle in 1887 established Amarillo as the largest rural cattle shipping point in the nation (1892-1897). More efficient handling began in 1904 with the founding by O.H. Nelson, Al Popham, and associates of the Western Stockyards, predecessor of Amarillo Livestock Auction. This livestock commission market opened in 1935 with the sale of 36 cattle and 21 horses by Jack Coulter, Auctioneer, and Virgil Light, Manager. In 1940 Jay Taylor and Eddie Johnson bought the Western Stockyards and constructed the present sales ring, incorporated 1945 as Amarillo Livestock Auction Company. Marketing was revolutionized. Annual sales exceed 400,000 cattle valued at more than $78,000,000. (1970)