DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture Shackelford County in 1866. Nine hundred and fourteen square miles of largely unsettled Texas earth — unorganized, wide open, and not exactly rolling out the welcome mat.
No county seat, no courthouse, not much of anything except grass, sky, and whatever was watching you from the brush. Into that emptiness rode two men who would leave their names on the land forever: Oliver Loving, born in 1812, and Charles Goodnight, born in 1836. Between 1866 and 1867, those two men drove cattle through Shackelford County — through the heart of it, really — pushing herds toward markets in New Mexico and Colorado.
That was not a casual ride. The Goodnight-Loving Trail was not your northern cattle trail, flat and straightforward. This one went through desert.
Over mountain passes. And out there, the herd and the men who drove it faced raids and environmental hardships that the northern routes simply didn't ask of a person. On top of that, cattle on this trail were delivered directly to markets — not to railheads where somebody else would finish the job.
You got the cattle there yourself, or you didn't get them there at all. Loving and Goodnight's success was contagious. Other cattlemen looked at what those two had done and decided they wanted a piece of it.
The trail they blazed ranked third in the volume of cattle driven to market annually between 1866 and 1875. Third in all of Texas. That is not a footnote — that is a legacy.
But here's a detail worth holding onto. Parts of what became the Goodnight-Loving Trail had already been walked before the cattle ever came. The Butterfield Overland Mail Route — also known as the Southern Overland Mail — had operated through this same country between 1858 and 1861.
That route entered Shackelford County from the northeast corner and cut diagonally toward the southwest, nearly splitting the county right down the middle into equal halves. The only station Butterfield kept inside the county sat on Chimney Creek, west of Albany — Smith's Station, they called it. And before even the mail coaches came through, U.S.
Army troops had explored segments of that route in the late 1840s and early 1850s, following the advancing frontier. So the trail that Loving and Goodnight made famous was, in some stretches, walking ground that soldiers and mail carriers had already broken. Layer upon layer, each one pressing the path a little deeper into the earth.
Oliver Loving died in 1867. Charles Goodnight lived until 1929. The trail they shared their names on helped pull Texas through its post-Civil War economy, moving cattle to destinations that, different as they were, both fed a state finding its footing again.
And Shackelford County — all 914 square miles of what was once unorganized, unsettled frontier — was shaped by that cattleman legacy. Formed by it, developed alongside it. The marker says it plain: that legacy remains a significant part of the county's identity.
Some trails fade. This one just became the county itself.
What the marker says
Shackelford County was an unorganized and largely unsettled county of 914 square miles when Oliver Loving (1812-1867) and Charles Goodnight (1836-1929) engaged in cattle drives through the region between 1866 and 1867 along what would become their namesake trail. Their success driving cattle to market in New Mexico and Colorado inspired many cattlemen to traverse the trail, ranking the trail third in the volume of cattle driven to market annually between 1866 and 1875. Portions of what became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail were originally blazed by the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, also known as Southern Overland Mail, which operated between 1858-1861. This route crossed from the northeast corner of the county diagonally toward the southwest, nearly dividing the county into equal parts. Smith's Station, located on Chimney Creek west of Albany, was the only station in Shackelford County. Segments of the Butterfield route were explored by the U.S. Army in the late 1840s and early 1850s as its troops followed the advancing frontier. The trail differed from those that travel to northern markets, as it traversed through desert and over mountain passes, subjecting the herd and cattlemen to raids and environmental hardships. In addition, cattle on the Goodnight-Loving Trail were delivered directly to markets as opposed to railheads for further transport. Both destinations, however significantly contributed to the state's post-Civil War economy. The cattleman legacy in Shackelford County, born along the Goodnight-Loving Trail, contributed to the formation and development of the county and remains a significant part of its identity. (2017)