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In fall 1877, Leigh and Walter Dyer and Samuel Coleman drove about 400 cattle to Spring Draw and built a two-room log cabin. The firm of Gunter, Munson & Summerfield bought their claim, and in 1880-81, cowboys built line camps and corrals and fenced 240,000 acres -- the area’s first use of barbed wire. In 1882, sixteen cowboys and 125 horses herded more than 10,600 cattle in the largest drive on record. The T Anchor weathered a cowboy strike (1883), drought (1885) and blizzard (1886). British-based Cedar Valley Land and Cattle Co. bought the ranch in 1885. When Randall County organized in 1889, six of the first officers were T Anchor employees. Foreman Lee John Hutson operated remaining lands until 1902, when the land was divided into smaller ranches and farms. 175 years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011 |
