J. Evetts Haley

Haley's XIT Ranch of Texas (1929) made his name and drew libel suits totaling $2.2 million. He was acquitted in the first trial, at Lubbock in 1931, but he and his co-defendants then withdrew the book and paid $17,500 to settle. His Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman followed in 1936. Haley was also a combative conservative: he led the anti-Roosevelt Jeffersonian Democrats in 1936, ran for governor in 1956 on a platform endorsing segregation and states' rights, and in 1964 published the best-selling polemic A Texan Looks at Lyndon.

What the plaque says

J. Evetts Haley (July 5, 1901 - October 9, 1995) A noted historian, writer and public figure in Texas during the early 20th century, J. Evetts Haley was born in Belton (Bell County). He grew up in Midland, working on area ranches and competing in rodeos. Haley attended Midland College and West Texas Normal College in Canyon, where he earned a degree in history. He went on to earn his master's degree at the University of Texas in Austin in 1926, focusing on post-Civil War Texas cattle trails. In 1925, Haley was appointed the first field secretary of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society and Museum in Canyon. During his time at the museum, Haley reveled in interviewing ranchers and farmers regarding old trail drives and the initial development of the cattle industry in west Texas. He began collecting artifacts and documents of early ranches and pioneers which have been installed in numerous museums and collections throughout the region. Haley was also a prolific author, writing articles and numerous acclaimed books chronicling the lives and times of early west Texas, most notably Charles Goodnight and the XIT Ranch. Haley was an original member of the Texas State Historical Survey Committee (now Texas Historical Commission). He received many honors throughout his life, including induction into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center (1990) and the Heritage Hall of Fame at the State Fair of Texas (1994). His library and personal papers became the initial collection of the Haley Memorial Library & History Center in Midland. Haley passed away in Midland and is buried in Moffat Cemetery (Bell County). (2019)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — steps away
  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.
• Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 12 mi
  A 1938 Depression-era lake on Tierra Blanca Creek that has gone dry, now 7,664 acres of shortgrass, cottonwood canyon and a prairie dog town on the High Plains south of Umbarger.
• Palo Duro Canyon State Park — 13 mi
  The upper end of the canyon the state bought in 1933, where CCC crews built the road to the floor and the army burned the winter camps of the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne in 1874.
• TEXAS Outdoor Musical — 13 mi
  A summer pageant of Panhandle settler life staged since 1966 in the Pioneer Amphitheater, built into a basin of Palo Duro Canyon below a 600-foot cliff.

More markers nearby

• The Charles Goodnight Memorial Trail — steps away
• Georgia O'Keeffe in Canyon — steps away
• Mary E. Hudspeth House — 0.4 mi
• First Methodist Church of Canyon — 0.5 mi