Charles Goodnight

Goodnight was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, on March 5, 1836, and liked to say he was born with the Republic of Texas and "joined" Texas the year it joined the Union. Late in 1845 he rode bareback on a mare named Blaze on his family's 800-mile trek to Milam County. He had six months of schooling. In the Brazos bottoms an old Indian called Caddo Jake taught him to hunt and track, and at fifteen he rode as a jockey. In 1958 he was among the first five named to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

What the plaque says

Charles Goodnight (1836-1929) Texas Ranger, Indian fighter. At 19, on way to California gold fields, saw ranching possibilities. Settled and started ranch in Palo Pinto County, 230 miles southeast of here. In Civil War, scout, guide and hunter for Frontier Regiment, Texas Cavalry, protecting settlers from Indian raids and Federal invasion. With Oliver Loving, moved cattle herds across arid west Texas and New Mexico lands dominated by Comanche Indians, establishing Goodnight-Loving Trail northeast to U.S. forts. Founded old Goodnight College. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site — steps away
  The two-story house the Goodnights moved into on December 27, 1887, after leaving the JA, with a porch that looks over bison descended from the calves Mary Ann saved.
• Gem Theatre — 11 mi
  Claude's small-town movie house of 1915, restored by the Armstrong County Museum and remembered for the scene in Hud where Homer and Lonnie Bannon sing along to Clementine.
• Donley County Courthouse — 18 mi
  Bulger and Rapp's red brick and white stone courthouse of 1891, the oldest in use in the Panhandle, given back its third floor and towers in a 2003 restoration.
• Saints' Roost Museum — 18 mi
  Clarendon's county museum in the hospital Cornelia Adair built for JA cowboys in 1910, named for the nickname cowhands gave a Methodist town with no saloons.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Goodnight Ranch — 0.2 mi
• Town of Goodnight — 0.3 mi
• Site of Old Goodnight College — 0.4 mi
• Armstrong County — 11 mi