Charlie Goodnight – 1836-1929

A Confederate veteran, Goodnight returned to Texas after the Civil War, rounded up and branded as much free-ranging cattle as he could, and in 1866, with partner Oliver Loving, drove 2,000 longhorns from Belknap, Texas, to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to feed U.S. Army troops there.
It was a hot, dry distance of some 500 miles, and the partners lost 400 head on the trail—300 from thirst, another 100 trampled to death when they finally reached the watering hole —but they were paid the spectacular sum of eight cents a pound for the stringy meat, netting a profit of $12,000. The Goodnight-Loving Trail they blazed became one of the most heavily trafficked routes in the Southwest, was the foundation of the trail-drive industry, and gave employment to the most celebrated and beloved worker in American industry, the cowboy.