A Walk Across Texas

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven We walked into Clarendon A town where sin has vanished To help people stay good Liquor has been banished. Walk across Texas With its wonderful sights. Walk across Texas With its beautiful nights. Eddie announced at breakfast that we were two days behind schedule on our mileage chart. But, he did not seem too concerned. “We can walk a couple of twenty-mile days and go without taking a day off and we’ll be back on our schedule,” he said. Norm had told us about seeing a friendly horse during his walk the day before. So we drove north of Clarendon to the site he had mentioned. We climbed from the car and Norm walked to the fence and began whistling. Soon we heard a horse whinnying and the sound of its hooves coming toward us. Then we saw a beautiful buckskin filly running to the fence. She stopped and Norm began petting and talking to her. Eddie and I joined him and she allowed us to pet her also. “She’s so pretty and friendly,” said Norm. We left and drove to my walking point. Eddie let me out and then drove to his and Norm’s starting points. I walked about a mile and saw four mule deer standing near the side of the road. I walked to within thirty feet of them before they finally bolted and leaped, easily clearing the fence. They looked beautiful as they ran through the rugged pastureland. I walked another two miles and Brad Shadle came riding up on a horse to say hello. He asked me if I was all right. I told him I was. “I was getting ready to go out to the pasture and I saw you and I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything,” he said. He said he was breaking the horse he was riding. “He’s still kinda skittish, but I think he’ll make a good horse.” I asked about the filly we had seen north of us. “Oh, yeah, I know her. I broke her about four years ago. She’s a really nice pony,” he said. I told him about our walking across Texas. “I think that is neat,” he said. “You fellers are getting a good view of the country. You are seeing things that people driving down the highway don’t see. Take that canyon right across the road. I think that is one of the most beautiful sites around here.” He pointed to a ragged looking canyon that dug deep into the pastureland , flatlands and hills revealing red clay with stone formations. “That canyon goes all the way to Palo Duro. That’s about fifty miles from here. If you got on a horse, you could ride it all the way in that canyon. But, it would be rough. It’s so rough in places that there are maverick cattle in there that have never seen a man. I’ve heard that some of the old cows are so crazy, that when they are caught and put in a trailer they get so excited that they die before they can get them out of there. Now, that’s something that only you’ll see because you’re walking.” He said he had lived on the Goodnight Ranch when he was a youngster . “My daddy worked for old man Goodnight,” he said. We talked about some of the Goodnight history. His JA Ranch once covered some one million acres and occupied most of four counties in this area. His ranching life with his partner, Oliver Loving, was used by Larry McMurtry in his book, Lonesome Dove. And the book was made into a film that starred Robert Duvall as Loving and Tommie Lee Jones as Goodnight. The movie actually follows many of the events in the lives of Goodnight and Loving, including the time when they were driving cattle to sell at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Loving and a cowboy left the herd and Goodnight to go ahead and check on the market at Fort Sumner. Indians attacked 55 CH A P T E R EL E V E N Norm Snyder made friends with this horse located in a pasture between Jayton and Pampa. Photos by Eddie Lane and Norm Snyder. them and Loving was wounded during the battle and could not continue to ride. So the cowboy left Loving...