DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, this one comes straight off the official marker for the Historic LS ranch out in Oldham County — so ride along and let the record speak. Now, there are ranches, and then there are ranches. The LS was the kind of place that collected legends the way a fence post collects barbed wire.
Founded back in the 1870s by W. M. D.
Lee — a former Indian Territory trader — and Lucien Scott, a New York financier who apparently decided the Texas Panhandle was a fine place to put his money. Between the two of them, they built something that ran water and grass for over a hundred thousand cattle. A hundred thousand.
And some years they pushed six or seven herds a year up the trail. You let that number sit a minute. Now — and here is where the story gets interesting — the LS was well known to some famed western characters.
Billy the Kid among them. When thefts followed Billy the Kid's visits, LS men rode west and brought their cattle back. They didn't petition anyone.
They didn't hold a meeting. They rode west, and they came back with what was theirs. And when gunfights in Tascosa put men into Boot Hill graves, the LS escaped disaster.
That's the marker's own phrasing, and I think it earns a moment of silence. Men died. The LS survived.
But survival has its own complications. Drouth brought heavy losses in 1886. And then came the XIT — three million acres of panhandle land granted to that outfit as the State of Texas' payment for constructing the Capitol in Austin.
That grant cut the old LS range in half. Half. Just like that, the map changed.
W. M. D.
Lee left in 1890 to promote a ship canal in Houston. Lucien Scott died in 1893. The era of the founders closed quiet, the way those things do.
In 1905, W. H. Gray and E.
F. Swift of Chicago bought the LS. The ranch changed hands, but the brand kept its name and its reputation.
Now — memorable men. The marker calls out foreman J. E.
McAlister, who later became a Channing merchant. A man who rode for the brand and then settled into commerce. That's a life.
And then there's this: one of the twenty-five-dollar-a-month cowboys at the LS was a fellow named E. L. Doheny.
Twenty-five dollars a month. Doheny went on to become a multi-millionaire oil man — and the marker notes he was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s. From Panhandle cowboy wages to the center of one of the most notorious scandals in American history.
I couldn't make that up, and the marker won't let me try. In time, ownership of the brand and ninety-six thousand acres of LS range passed to Colonel C. T.
Herring, rancher and civic leader of Amarillo. And as of 1968 when this marker was recorded, his estate was still operating it. The headquarters sits three miles southeast of right here.
A hundred thousand cattle. Billy the Kid. Boot Hill.
A Teapot Dome millionaire who once drew twenty-five a month. The LS didn't just survive the Panhandle — it collected its history and kept on riding.
What the marker says
(Headquarters 3 miles southeast) Great early ranch well known to badman Billy the Kid and other famed western characters. The LS was founded in 1870s by former Indian Territory trader W. M. D. Lee and New York financier Lucien Scott. Through Lee's efforts, the LS had water and grass for over 100,000 cattle and sometimes drove 6 or 7 herds a year up the trail. When thefts followed Billy the Kid's visits, LS men rode west and brought back their cattle; and when Tascosa gunfights put men into Boot Hill graves, the LS escaped disaster. But drouth brought heavy losses in 1886; and grant of 3,000,000 acres of panhandle lands to the XIT (State of Texas' payment for constructing Capitol in Austin) cut old LS range in half. Lee left in 1890 to promote a ship canal in Houston. Scott died 1893. W. H. Gray and E. F. Swift of Chicago bought LS in 1905. Memorable LS men included foreman J. E. McAlister, later a Channing merchant. One of the $25-a-month cowboys was E. L. Doheny, later a multi-millionaire oil man involved in 1920's Teapot Dome scandal. Ownership of brand and 96,000 acres of LS range passed to Col. C. T. Herring, rancher and civic leader of Amarillo; his estate still operates it. (1968)