XIT

XIT PDF Author: Michael M. Miller
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806167955
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The Texas state constitution of 1876 set aside three million acres of public land in the Texas Panhandle in exchange for construction of the state’s monumental red-granite capitol in Austin. That land became the XIT Ranch, briefly one of the most productive cattle operations in the West. The story behind the legendary XIT Ranch, told in full in this book, is a tale of Gilded Age business and politics at the very foundation of the American cattle industry. The capitol construction project, along with the acres that would become XIT, went to an Illinois syndicate led by men influential in politics and business. Unable to sell the land, the Illinois group, backed by British capital, turned to cattle ranching to satisfy investors. In tracing their efforts, which expanded to include a satellite ranch in Montana, historian Michael M. Miller demythologizes the cattle business that flourished in the late-nineteenth-century American West, paralleling the United States’ first industrial revolution. The XIT Ranch came into being and succeeded, Miller shows, only because of the work of accountants, lawyers, and managers, overseen by officers and a board of seasoned international capitalists. In turn, the ranch created wealth for some and promoted the expansion of railroads, new towns, farms, and jobs. Though it existed only from 1885 to 1912, from Texas to Montana the operation left a deep imprint on community culture and historical memory. Describing the Texas capitol project in its full scope and gritty detail, XIT cuts through the popular portrayal of great western ranches to reveal a more nuanced and far-reaching reality in the business and politics of the beef industry at the close of America’s Gilded Age.

XIT

XIT PDF Author: Michael M. Miller
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806167955
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Texas state constitution of 1876 set aside three million acres of public land in the Texas Panhandle in exchange for construction of the state’s monumental red-granite capitol in Austin. That land became the XIT Ranch, briefly one of the most productive cattle operations in the West. The story behind the legendary XIT Ranch, told in full in this book, is a tale of Gilded Age business and politics at the very foundation of the American cattle industry. The capitol construction project, along with the acres that would become XIT, went to an Illinois syndicate led by men influential in politics and business. Unable to sell the land, the Illinois group, backed by British capital, turned to cattle ranching to satisfy investors. In tracing their efforts, which expanded to include a satellite ranch in Montana, historian Michael M. Miller demythologizes the cattle business that flourished in the late-nineteenth-century American West, paralleling the United States’ first industrial revolution. The XIT Ranch came into being and succeeded, Miller shows, only because of the work of accountants, lawyers, and managers, overseen by officers and a board of seasoned international capitalists. In turn, the ranch created wealth for some and promoted the expansion of railroads, new towns, farms, and jobs. Though it existed only from 1885 to 1912, from Texas to Montana the operation left a deep imprint on community culture and historical memory. Describing the Texas capitol project in its full scope and gritty detail, XIT cuts through the popular portrayal of great western ranches to reveal a more nuanced and far-reaching reality in the business and politics of the beef industry at the close of America’s Gilded Age.

Texas Woollybacks

Texas Woollybacks PDF Author: Paul H. Carlson
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623495075
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
With a new epilogue to carry the story to the present, Paul Carlson engagingly chronicles the development of the range sheep and goat industry from Spanish times to about 1930, when widespread use of mesh-wire fences brought an end to the open-range management of sheep and goat ranches in Texas. “This well-written and thoroughly researched book will invariably be appreciated by those individuals interested in southwestern and agricultural history.”—Journal of American History “This volume is impressive in the array and quality of information presented concerning the sheep and goat industry in Texas.”—Western Historical Quarterly “. . . a comprehensive, well-organized, and easily read treatment of a subject comparatively neglected by historians of the American livestock industry."—Great Plains Quarterly “. . . employs a down-to-earth yet scholarly approach to give us a highly readable, very informative book on a neglected subject . . . accuracy, insight, and readability make Texas Woollybacks an excellent book.”—Southwest Chronicle

Taming the Land

Taming the Land PDF Author: John Miller Morris
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603440372
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
A postcard craze gripped the nation from 1905 to 1920, as the rise of outdoor photography coincided with a wave of settlement and prosperity in Texas. Hundreds of people took up cameras, and photographers of note chose some of their best work for duplication as photo postcards—sold for a nickel and mailed for a penny to distant friends and relatives. These postcards, which now enjoy another kind of craze in the collecting world, left what author John Miller Morris calls a "significant visual legacy" of the history and social geography of Texas. For more than a decade, Morris has been finding and studying the photographers and methodically gathering their postcards. In Taming the Land, he shares those finds with readers, introducing each photographer and providing interpretive descriptions of the places, people, or events depicted in the photographs. The stories the cards tell—in the images captured and the messages carried—add an exceptional dimension to our understanding of life in rural Texas a century ago. Taming the Land presents postcards from twenty-four counties in the booming Texas Panhandle. This is the first book in a set called Plains of Light, which will collect and document turn-of-the-twentieth-century photo postcards from all over West Texas.

Under the Cap of Invisibility

Under the Cap of Invisibility PDF Author: Lucie Genay
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
ISBN: 0826364233
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Pantex was built during World War II near the town of Amarillo, Texas. The site was converted early in the Cold War to assemble nuclear weapons and produce high explosives. For nearly fifty years Pantex has been the sole assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons in the United States. Today, most of the activities of the plant consist of the manufacture of high explosive components and the dismantlement or life extension of weapons. Unlike the much more famous nuclear-weapons-production sites at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Rocky Flats, the Pantex plant has drawn little attention, hidden under a metaphoric “cap of invisibility.” Lucie Genay now lifts that invisibility cap to give the world its first in-depth look at Pantex and the people who have spent their lives as neighbors and employees of this secretive industry. The book investigates how Pantex has impacted local identity by molding elements of the past into the guaranty of its future and its concealment. It further examines the multiple facets of Pantexism through the voices of native and adoptive Panhandlers.

Through Time and the Valley

Through Time and the Valley PDF Author: John R. Erickson
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574415093
Category : Canadian River
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The isolated Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle stretched before John Erickson and Bill Ellzey as they began a journey through time and what the locals call "the valley." They went on horseback, as they might have traveled it a century before. Everywhere they went they talked, worked, and swapped stories with the people of the valley, piecing together a picture of what life has been like there for a hundred years. Through Time and the Valley is their story of the river--its history, its lore, its colorful characters, the comedies and tragedies that valley people have spun yarns about for generations. Rancher Erickson is an insider who knows his territory and has the gifts to tell about it. A wry and delightful humorist, he tickles our funnybone while touching our feelings. Outlaws, frontier wives, Indian warriors, cowboys, craftsmen, dance-hall girls, moonshiners, inventors, big ranchers, small ranchers-all are part of the Canadian River country heritage that gives this book its vitality.

Let me tell you what I've learned

Let me tell you what I've learned PDF Author: PJ Pierce
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292787901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Barbara Jordan spoke for many Texas women when she told a reporter, "I get from the soil and spirit of Texas the feeling that I, as an individual, can accomplish whatever I want to, and that there are no limits, that you can just keep going, just keep soaring. I like that spirit." Indeed, the sense of limitless possibilities has inspired countless Texas women—sometimes in the face of daunting obstacles—to build lives rich in work, family, friends, faith, and community involvement. In this collection of interviews conducted by PJ Pierce, twenty-five Texas women ranging in age from 53 to 93 share the wisdom they've acquired through living unconventional lives. Responding to the question "What have you found that really matters about life?" they offer keen insights into motherhood, career challenges, being a minority, marriage and widowhood, anger, assertiveness, managing change, persevering, power, speaking out, fashioning success from failure, writing your own job description, loving a younger man, and recognizing opportunities disguised as disaster—to name only a few of their topics. In her introduction, Pierce describes how she came to write the book and how she chose her subjects to represent a cross-section of career paths and ethnic groups and all geographic areas of Texas. A topical index makes it easy to compare several women's views on a given subject.

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage PDF Author: Sean O'Reilly
Publisher: Travelers' Tales
ISBN: 9781885211569
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book showcases a diverse array of spirit-renewing journeys from pilgrims of many kinds from places as far away as Tibet's Mount Kailish and as near as sacred New Mexico soil. A soulful blend of more than 20 stories, "Pilgrimage" is ideal for all with an affinity for travel, a practice of mindful living, and a thirst for the unknown.

Dumas

Dumas PDF Author: Louise Carroll George
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738570617
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
In 1891, Louis P. Dumas heard about cheap land in the Texas Panhandle. He left his successful enterprises in Sherman and chose a section of grassland in Moore County to "build a town." He had not bargained for the harsh elements that came with the territory, though. Within five years he abandoned his town, as did most of the other residents. Dumas was a ghost town three times in its first 10 years, but gradually, a quiet village developed. Oil and gas discovered in the 1920s brought about growth and continues to support the economy. Phil Baxter, who wrote the song "Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas," spoke of the friendliness and spirit of the people he met there in 1927. Today those qualities endure in the people of Dumas.

Mysteries and Legends of Texas

Mysteries and Legends of Texas PDF Author: Donna Ingham
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762766689
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Part of our growing Mysteries and Legends series, Mysteries and Legends of Texas explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Texas’s history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Texas history.

Glimpses into My Own Black Box

Glimpses into My Own Black Box PDF Author: George W. Stocking
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 0299249832
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
George W. Stocking, Jr., has spent a professional lifetime exploring the history of anthropology, and his findings have shaped anthropologists’ understanding of their field for two generations. Through his meticulous research, Stocking has shown how such forces as politics, race, institutional affiliations, and personal relationships have influenced the discipline from its beginnings. In this autobiography, he turns his attention to a subject closer to home but no less challenging. Looking into his own “black box,” he dissects his upbringing, his politics, even his motivations in writing about himself. The result is a book systematically, at times brutally, self-questioning. An interesting question, Stocking says, is one that arouses just the right amount of anxiety. But that very anxiety may be the ultimate source of Stocking’s remarkable intellectual energy and output. In the first two sections of the book, he traces the intersecting vectors of his professional and personal lives. The book concludes with a coda, “Octogenarian Afterthoughts,” that offers glimpses of his life after retirement, when advancing age, cancer, and depression changed the tenor of his reflections about both his life and his work. This book is the twelfth and final volume of the influential History of Anthropology series.