DUANE
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Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm leaning on what the official marker says right here in Carson County. Now settle in, because this one's got German tinsmiths, a British steamship company, and twenty-five thousand beeves all pointed north. That's not a tall tale.
That's just Texas. After 1880, every spring and summer, Texas herds rolled up the trail toward the Northern states. Fattening country, they called it.
And for the cowboys who pushed those herds along, the work was about as romantic as a mouthful of trail dust. Stampedes to turn. Rivers to ford.
Quicksand streams that could swallow a steer whole. Indians and cattle thieves on one side, hunger and thirst on the other. You endured, or you didn't finish.
But the drive we're talkin' about here, the one this marker commemorates, that was something else entirely. They called it the Last Great Texas Panhandle Drive to Montana. It was organized right here, at the N Bar N Headquarters, known in the brand books as N-N.
Ranch manager J.L. Harrison had the whole thing in hand. Trail boss was T.L.
Coffee, Tom Coffee, and Tom had his work cut out for him. One hundred cowboys. Ten herds.
Twenty-five hundred cattle per herd. You do the accounting and it comes out to twenty-five thousand beeves moving north from April to September, 1892. Montana-bound, every last one.
Now, who owned all those cattle? That's where the story gets interesting. The Niedringhaus Brothers, German tinsmiths out of St.
Louis. They had built a fortune in enamel granite household wares, pots and pans and the like, and somewhere along the way they decided to put that fortune into ranching. From tinsmiths to cattle barons.
The Panhandle will do that to a man's ambitions. And the range they were working? From 1882 to 1886, the N Bar N outfit leased their ground in Carson and the neighboring counties from the Francklyn Land and Cattle Company.
And the Francklyn outfit was itself a British syndicate, backed, if you can believe it, by the Cunard Steamship Line. London money, under a Texas sky. Afterward, that range passed to the White Deer Land Company.
And it was the White Deer Land Company that ultimately showed the N Bar N the door. They wanted the range cleared of large herds. So Coffee and Harrison and their hundred cowboys gathered up those twenty-five thousand cattle and pointed them north one last time.
By 1907, the White Deer Land Company was offering its six hundred and fifty thousand acres up for sale. Not to great syndicates this time. To small ranchers and farmers.
The land got fenced. The steam plow came in, turning that rich, grassy sod. The open range that had swallowed stampedes and British money and the dreams of a couple of German tinsmiths from St.
Louis, it was broken up and parceled out. Tom Coffee's trail drive in 1892 wasn't just the last great Panhandle drive to Montana. It was the last of its kind, period.
The land itself made sure of that.
What the marker says
Each Spring and Summer after 1880, many Texas herds went up the trail to Northern states for fattening. For the cowboys, trail drives meant hard work. They had to turn stampedes, ford rivers and quicksand streams, and fight Indians and cattle thieves. They endured hunger, thirst, and other physical hardships. The Last Great Texas Panhandle Drive was organized here at N Bar N (N-N) Headquarters. Ranch manager was J.L. Harrison; trail boss T.L. (Tom) Coffee. 100 cowboys drove 10 herds, each with 2500 cattle, or a total of 25,000 beeves, to Montana from April to September 1892. The cattle belonged to Niedringhaus Brothers, German tinsmiths of St. Louis, who put into ranching a fortune made in enamel granite household wares. From 1882 to1886, N Bar N leased range in Carson and neighboring counties from the Francklyn Land & Cattle Company, a British syndicate backed by Cunard Steamship Line. Afterward this range belonged to White Deer Land Company. The N Bar N outfit left here because White Deer Land Company wanted the range cleared of large herds. By 1907 the 650,000 acres of its land was offered for sale to small ranchers and farmers. It was fenced and the steam plow introduced to turn the rich, grassy sod.