Barbecue Campbell and the XIT

On November 2, 1912 the last herd of cattle on the famous XIT ranch was sold. It was but a brief 27 years earlier, on July 1, 1885 that the first herd of Texas Longhorns were brought to the sprawling, three million acre ranch.

During those twenty-seven years Texas could rightfully boast of having the largest cattle ranch in the world. The birth of the XIT began in 1879 when the Sixteenth Texas Legislature designated a three million acre parcel of land to be sold for the purpose of raising the necessary funds to finance the construction of the state's capitol building. The designated land stret...