Frying Pan Ranch

The ranch began with a son-in-law's scouting trip. William Henry Bush, a Chicago hat merchant married to Glidden's daughter Elva, reported in 1879 that the land around Tecovas Spring was ideal, and the surveyor John S. Summerfield vouched for its steady water. Warren W. Wetsel oversaw the 120-mile fence, which cost $39,000, and stayed on as bookkeeper; his wife Kate was the only woman in Potter County for six years. Glidden, visiting in 1884, had feared there was not enough grass to feed a goose. In 1898 he deeded the ranch to Bush for $68,000.

What the plaque says

Frying Pan Ranch First big cattle ranch fenced with barbed wire. Established to demonstrate effectiveness of barbed wire in controlling use of grass, in preserving herd bloodlines and in reducing ranch work forces. Owned by barbed wire inventor Joseph F. Glidden and his Texas sales agent, Henry B. Sanborn. Sanborn developed the ranch, devising the "Panhandle brand" -- immediately renamed "Frying Pan" by cowboys branding 12,000 head of cattle originally pastured here. Fencing began here in 1881 with wire freighted from Dodge City. Cedar posts were cut in Canadian River valley and Palo Duro Canyon (40 mi. SE). Ranch was successful in proving the advantages of barbed wire fencing: the most important contribution to the economic conquest of the Great Plains. Potter County was organized in 1887 with Amarillo the county seat. Glidden and Sanborn moved city one mile east to their townsite addition in 1889. In 1892 Sanborn traded his interest in the Frying Pan for Glidden's interest in the city. In time the eastern fence line of the ranch became Western Street in Amarillo. Heirs of Glidden still manage the family estate. The old ranch headquarters was located at Tecovas Springs (6 mi. NW). (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cadillac Ranch — 4.3 mi
  Ten Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 planted nose down in a pasture west of Amarillo by the Ant Farm collective in 1974, on private land where visitors are let in to paint them.
• Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument — 8.5 mi
  Four sealed time capsules raised in Amarillo in 1968 for helium's centennial, in the city that for years produced almost all the world's commercial helium from the Cliffside field.
• Route 66 Sixth Street Historic District — 11 mi
  Thirteen blocks of Amarillo's streetcar suburb that Route 66 turned into a roadside strip, from the 1922 Nat to Texaco, Phillips and Dutch Mill stations, now shops and bars.
• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 17 mi
  The Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.

More markers nearby

• Amarillo — 7.7 mi
• Helium Time Columns Monument and Museum — 8.5 mi
• Palo Duro Baptist Church — 9.3 mi
• Amarillo Natatorium ("The Nat") — 11 mi