Cattle outfits operate on lands purchased from the original XIT acreage. Thousands of area residents own small patches of the fabled ranch. Capitol and XIT historian Bill Green says the ranch’s legacy can be seen as a branding tool because businesses in Dalhart and around the Panhandle adopt the name: XIT Roofing, XIT Real Estate, XIT Feeders, and XIT car dealerships and communications companies. The XIT lives on as a carefully tended legend, and the reality of the ranch is difficult to separate from the myths. Neither the XIT Ranch nor the special, narrow-gauge railroad tracks exist today. “And it’s the ranch that built the largest state Capitol in the country.” At the time of its dedication, the Texas Capitol was the seventh-largest building in the world. “The XIT looms large in Texas mythology and ranching history because it was the largest fenced ranch in the world during its heyday,” says Nick Olson, director of the XIT Museum in Dalhart, which preserves images, stories, saddles and artifacts associated with the XIT. Houston also commented on the logistics required to manifest this structure, which started with the creation of the 3 million-acre XIT Ranch and included the construction of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad to deliver red granite for the Capitol from Marble Falls to Austin. “This building fires the heart and excites reflection in the minds of all.” “Texas stands peerless amid the mighty, and her brow is crowned with bewildering magnificence!” he said. When Sam Houston’s youngest son, Temple, spoke at the state Capitol dedication in 1888, he waxed eloquent about the grand building.
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