DALHART, Texas (AP) - Some facts about the historic XIT Ranch in West Texas, part of which was
auctioned off Wednesday:
-- The XIT was about 3 million acres in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The C.D. Shamburger Ranch
reached 120,000 acres in 1943 but dwindled to about 37,000 acres.
-- In 1882, the state sold the tract that became the XIT Ranch to a syndicate of Midwest investors for
50 cents an acre in exchange for the building of a new state Capitol in Austin.
-- The Shamburger Ranch has approximately 32,703 acres of grassland, 2,780 acres of irrigated
farmland, 1,296 acres of conservation reserve program land and 477 acres of New Mexico state lease
land.
-- It has 29 windmills, 15 irrigation wells and four residences.
-- The largest tract of land sold Wednesday is 4,431 acres. The smallest, Buffalo Springs, is 108 acres
and was the first parcel deeded to the investors who built the Capitol.
-- Some books about the XIT Ranch: "6,000 Miles of Fence: Life on the XIT Ranch of Texas," by Cordia
Sloan Duke and Joe B. Frantz; "The XIT Ranch of Texas" by J. Evetts Haley; "The Flamboyant Judge,"
by James D. Hamlin, J. Evetts Haley and William Curry Holden; "XIT Buck," by Charles E. McConnell;
"Short Grass and Longhorns," by Laura V. Hamner.
