Early Sheriffs of Armstrong County, 1890-1926

Before Armstrong County had sheriffs, Charles Goodnight kept order much on his own terms. In February 1877, on Commission Creek near Fort Elliott, he met the outlaw gang of "Dutch" Henry Born and struck a bargain, sealed with a drink, that kept their activities north of the Salt Fork of the Red River. On the JA he allowed no gambling, whiskey or fighting and would not hire men fired elsewhere for drunkenness or theft. In 1880 he helped organize the Panhandle Stock Association at Mobeetie and served as its first president.

What the plaque says

Early Sheriffs of Armstrong County, 1890-1926 Inheriting peacekeeping duty from 1874-90 ranchers, the early sheriffs of Armstrong County (organized 1890) won great public regard. With their families, these men lived in jail quarters and fed the prisoners. There was no salary; fees were earned in civil and criminal process serving. Arrests were made for rustling and various other crimes. The earliest sheriffs were: John F. Wilson, 1890-92; Vince S. Terry, 1892-96; Pat H. Lynch, 1896-1904, 1919-24; Jeff D. Martin, 1904-06; W.A. (Bill) Davis, 1906-10; Ranzil C. Rodgers, 1910-14; James D. Woodburn, 1914-19, 1924-26. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Gem Theatre — steps away
  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.
• Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch State Historic Site — 11 mi
  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.
• Carson County Square House Museum — 16 mi
  The 1880s ranch cottage that is the oldest house in the town of Panhandle, at the heart of a twenty-one-building museum of the plains from mammoth hunters to the oil boom.
• Lighthouse Trail — 21 mi
  The park's most walked trail, 2.8 miles each way across the canyon floor to the Lighthouse, a hoodoo of Triassic sandstone balanced on a pedestal of softer red shale.

More markers nearby

• Armstrong County Jail — steps away
• Claude News — steps away
• Site of Warner Building — steps away
• Charles Howard Roan — steps away