DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — this is Duane, readin' between the stones. Now, most folks driving through the Texas Panhandle see nothing but flat horizon and hard sky, and they figure nothing too remarkable ever took root out here. But you stop at the right canyon rim, and the land itself will tell you a different story — one built right into the walls of a house.
The McBride Ranch House went up in 1903. And here's the part worth slowing down for: the man who built it, David Nichols McBride, didn't order lumber from a catalog or wait on a freight wagon loaded with brick. He quarried Alibates dolomite — that ancient, flint-bright stone — right from the canyon rim.
He burned lime on the site itself to make his mortar. The floors? Masonry mortar.
This was not a man who sent away for things he could pull from the earth beneath his own boots. For the wood — the ridge beams, the door lintels, the window lintels, the ice house, the corral — McBride salvaged old railroad bridge timbers from the Canadian River. Somebody else's infrastructure became his homestead, board by reclaimed board.
Now, who was this man? David Nichols McBride was born October 22, 1849, in Henry County, Illinois. He married Abigail Catharine Stringer at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, on July 2, 1876.
And on September 17, 1887 — just eighteen days after Potter County was organized — the McBrides settled near the village of Amarillo. Eighteen days. The county was barely dry on the paperwork, and McBride was already planting himself in the middle of it.
They would go on to have seven children. Here's the part that gives you a sense of just how audacious this whole enterprise was. The land McBride chose to homestead sat smack in the center of the famous LX Ranch, owned by the American Pastoral Company of London.
A Texas-sized outfit backed by London money. And right there in the heart of it, McBride staked his claim — what the records called a "Watered Homestead" section, plus three alternate "Dry Grazing" school lands sections. His patent for the land wasn't issued until 1901, upon proof of three years' occupancy.
The homestead section cost him a dollar fifty an acre, with payments stretched over forty years at three percent interest. The grazing land ran a dollar an acre. Then, two years after that patent was finally in hand, he quarried the stone and raised the house.
David Nichols McBride died June 26, 1928, in Needles, California. In 1963, his heirs sold the property to the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority. It is now administered by the National Park Service, Sanford Recreation Area, Lake Meredith.
A man quarries his own stone, salvages his own timber, burns his own lime, and settles into the center of somebody else's empire — and the house he builds is still standing. Out here in Potter County, the canyon rim remembers.
What the marker says
(Built 1903) A pioneer settler quarried Alibates dolomite from the canyon rim to build this house, mortared with lime burned on the site. Wood in ridge beams, door and window lintels, ice house, and corral came from old railroad bridge timbers salvaged from Canadian River. The floors are of masonry mortar. The builder, David Nichols McBride, was born Oct. 22, 1849, in Henry County, Ill.; married Abigail Catharine Stringer at Fort Sill, Indian Territory, July 2, 1876; and settled near village of Amarillo Sept. 17, 1887--just 18 days after Potter County was organized. The McBrides had seven children. This site (in "Watered Homestead") and three alternate "Dry Grazing" school lands sections were situated in center of the famous LX Ranch, owned by the American Pastoral Company of London. Patent for his land was issued to McBride in 1901, upon proof of three years' occupancy. The homestead section cost $1.50 an acre, with payments extending over 40 years at 3% interest. The grazing land cost $1.00 an acre. McBride died June 26, 1928, in Needles, Calif.; heirs sold this property in 1963 to the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority. It is now administered by the National Park Service, Sanford Recreation Area, Lake Meredith. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1971.