Parmer County Courthouse - #2
by Stephen Stookey
Title
Parmer County Courthouse - #2
Artist
Stephen Stookey
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Parmer County is steeped in Texas lore. Farwell, the county seat is named for the Farwell brothers of Lake Forest, Illinois. The brothers built the Texas State capitol building. The entrepreneurial brothers received 3 million acres of virgin Texas ranchland as compensation. The Farwell's established the famed XIT Ranch on the land. The massive ranch, once the largest in the world stretched over 200 miles south-to-north along the Texas-New Mexico border, with a width of 20-30 miles. At one time the ranch encompassed all or portions of Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Parmer, Castro, Bailey, Lamb, Cochran, and Hockley counties.
At its peak the XIT employed 800-plus cowboys, strung over 6,000 miles of barbed wire, managed 150,000 head of cattle, and employed ex-Texas Rangers in an effort to fend of wildlife (wolves & coyotes) and cattle rustlers from New Mexico. Eventually the challenges of keeping the massive ranch operational proved too great and the ranch was portioned and sold. The annual XIT Renunion & Rodeo is head each August in Dalhart, TX.
Parmer County was created in 1907, with Farwell winning a hotly contested election for county seat. Cowboys working the area had no home address and were required to vote in the city where they did laundry. Farwell had the only laundry in the area and, thus, corralled the cowboy vote. Settlers arrived in Farwell via the Santa Fe Railroad, and the famed Ozark Trail (St. Louis to Santa Fe) passed through Farwell.
FAA Group Featured Image:
No Place Like Home
9/16/2018
Uploaded
August 7th, 2018
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