FRONTIER COLOSSUS

A LOOK BACK AT THE LEGENDARY TEXAS COWBOY WHO TRANSFORMED THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST

- ALLEN BARRA

He almost single-handedly created the cattle industry, invented the chuck wagon, was an innovator for modern irrigation, helped save the buffalo from potential extinction, fought Indians, befriended Indians, scouted the plains, hauled freight, hanged rustlers, saved lives, kept his promises, founded the first ranch on the Texas Panhandle, is considered by some to have been the first Landman, and posthumously served as the inspiration for Larry McMurty’s lead character “Captain” Woodrow F. Call in the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. Few men could have boasted of having blazed such an impactful trail across the American West throughout their lifetime. While the “Father of the Texas Panhandle” rarely gloated over his own accomplishments, True West is only too happy to celebrate the extraordinary life and achievements of a true colossus of the frontier. Was “The Colonel” the original man of vision? Yes, a hell of a vision.

Charlie’s exploits over the next 70 years would—and have— filled volumes. During his youth, Charlie, like all Texas immigrants, lived within the menacing shadow of the Comanche nation. Clashes between Americans and Comanches were shockingly brutal, even by the standards of frontier warfare. The Comanches, once the undisputed masters of the Texas Plains, found themselves pushed farther northwest, and the clashes between Indians and Whites became more frequent. Having no army to protect them, Texans often formed their own militia. Goodnight joined a group of Texas Rangers captained by one Jack Querton, signing on as a scout. “First, [to be a scout] a man must be born a natural woodsman and have the faculty of never needing a compass except in snowstorms or darkness,” he later recalled. “I’ve never owned a compass.” By his early 20s, Charlie was a more capable scout and guide than just about any of his fellow rangers.