Matador Ranch
The Matador Ranch is an historic cattle ranch in Motley County, Texas, on the South Plains. Established in 1882, the Matador is located some ninety miles east of Lubbock. According to its website, the current mission of the ranch is improvement of the health and productivity of its livestock, wildlife, and renewable natural resources.
Henry Harrison "Hank" Campbell (1840–1911), a native of North Carolina, arrived in Texas in 1854, prior to his service in the Confederate Army and his subsequent work as a cattle drover. In 1879, with four other investors, Campbell launched what became the Matador Ranch based about Ballard Springs. Campbell's wife, the former Elizabeth Bundy, joined him in Motley County in 1880. Rather than accepting life in a dugout as was then customary, Mrs. Campbell insisted on tent camping until lumber could be arranged for a two-room house. She was nurse and hostess at the ranch and the postmistress at the nearby town of Matador.
In the beginning, the Matador grew to encompass 40,000 head of cattle on 100,000 acres (400 km2) of land and another 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) of open range rights. In 1882, the ranch was purchased by a syndicate from Scotland, the Matador Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. Campbell continued as the ranch superintendent until 1891. The Matador Ranch acquired the Cottonwood Mott, named for a stand of trees surrounding a nearby natural spring. Cowboys used the camp as a base from which to herd cattle and mend fences on the range. A log cabin built at the camp by employees of the Jingle Bob Ranch, was the site of at least two gunfights.
In its heyday in the early 20th century, The Matador extended from Motley into neighboring Cottle, Dickens, and Floyd counties. In 1902, the ranch also acquired the 210,000-acre (850 km2) Alamositas Ranch in Oldham County west of Amarillo. Additional pastures were leased in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan. At its peak, the Matador Ranch owned 90,000 cattle and had title to 879,000 acres (3,560 km2) of land in parts of four Texas counties. In 1913, the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway was built through ranch lands in Motley County, and the town of Roaring Springs was established.
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