North Texas Star Storyteller & Rambler (Mineral Wells, Tex.), April 2005 Page: 22 of 36
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NORTH TEXAS STAR STORYTELLER & RAMBLER © 22
PARDS, from page 21
live oaks. Under these huge trees they
sometimes wintered. In summer they
enjoyed their shade on this seeming
endless, nearly treeless plain. The
trees are still there.
Once through the gap, the bawling
entourage of dry cows and longhorn
steers plodded along to the Middle
Concho River, about 20 miles north of
modern-day San Angelo. They fol-
lowed the river for about 40 miles to
the stream's head and prepared for
what lay ahead. This is where the
herd was pointed due west towards
the Pecos River. All that was stopping
them was 90-plus miles of waterless
desert. This was not always so. When
the Butterfield coaches traversed the
area men were hired to dig cisterns
and keep them filled with water
hauled from the Concho. But the
coaches were no more, and the cis-
terns were dry and cracked. There
would be no drinkable water.
On a June morning, after allowing
the cattle to drink until they would
drink no more and filling canteens
and barrels to the brim, they left the
Concho country and ambled out onto
the bottom end of the sand-swept,
sun-baked Staked Plain.
By the third day the weaker cows
were dying off. The night before
they'd been too thirsty to lie down
and had stomped and bellowed all
night. Goodnight decided bedding
down for the night was a waste of
time. "Mr. Loving," he said, "This will
never do. Those cattle walked enough
last night to have got to the Pecos.
This camping won't work; we've got
to let them travel." Loving concurred.
The cattle, which had not had
water in three days, looked pitiful as
they moved through the night. Their
tongues hung out and their ribs pro-
truded. About 2 in the morning, after
the herd, thinking they smelled water,
stampeded, Goodnight gathered up
all the empty canteens and loped off
into the night toward the Pecos, some
12 miles on.
Upon returning, Goodnight picked
four hands and cut out about two
thirds of the herd, which had by that
time closed their proximity to the
river to about six miles. The cattle
selected were the strongest, those that
could move on quickly to the river to
drink at a site scouted by Goodnight -
Horsehead Crossing.
Comanches and Kiowas had used
See PARDS, page 23
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May, David. North Texas Star Storyteller & Rambler (Mineral Wells, Tex.), April 2005, newspaper, April 1, 2005; Mineral Wells, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1099298/m1/22/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting East Parker County Genealogy and Historical Society.