The Frying Pan Ranch

Editor’s Note: Caprock Chronicles in edited by Jack Becker, Librarian, Texas Tech University Library. Today’s article is by Allen Anderson an archivist at the Southwest Collection also on the campus of Texas Tech. Anderson’s article is the first of a series of articles on historic ranches of the Panhandle.

One of the most successful cattle enterprises in West Texas during the height of the 1880s “Beef Bonanza” was the Frying Pan Ranch, begun when Henry B. Sanborn, a sales representative for Joseph F. Glidden’s barbed wire manufacturing firm in DeKalb, Illinois. An owner of a successful ranch in Grayson County, Texas, Sanborn sought to further advertise his new product at his new ranch.

In 1881, acting in partnership with Glidden, Sanborn purchased 95 sections of choice Panhandle land covering the southwestern portion of Potter County from about the Canadian River down into northwestern Randall County. The tract included Tecovas Spring, once a trading site for Indians and comancheros and subsequently utilized as a watering place by pastores from New Mexico for their flocks of sheep. John Summerfield, surveyor for the Gunter & Munson firm of Sherman, TX, reported the spring’s constant flow of fresh water to Sanborn, who then chose the site for his ranch headquarters.

The story goes that when Sanborn initially picked his ranch’s brand he created a brand in the shape of a panhandle. When a cowhand saw it he reportedly remarked, “Why that’s a skillet—a fryin’ pan!” Hence, the name.

After buying the land, Sanborn sought to enclose it in barbed wire and hired Warren W. Wetzel of Sherman to oversee the task. At a cost of $39,000, Wetzel built the fence with cedar posts brought up from both Palo Duro Canyon and the breaks of the Sierrita de la Cruz in the ranch’s northwestern portion. When completed, the four-wire fence covered 120 miles.

Wetzel stayed on as the ranch’s bookkeeper and in 1882 brought his bride, Kate, out from New York and for the next six years, she was the only woman in Potter County and became a favorite among area cowboys. The Wetzels built a dugout in the hillside near Tecovas Spring; it served as the Frying Pan headquarters until the completion of a large, 9-room adobe house and stalls nearby.

Before long, the Frying Pan had 15,000 head of cattle, and consequently 125,000 more acres were added to the holdings, including the present site of Wildorado in Oldham County. In 1884, Sanborn first visited his new ranch, his fears that there “was not enough grass to feed a goose” were promptly dispelled by the sight of some 20,000 fattened cattle. Arch Childers, employed on Sanborn’s Grayson County ranch, was hired as the Frying Pan’s first foreman.

In 1887, the serene life of the Frying Pan was dispelled by the arrival of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway, who laid its tracks diagonally across the ranch, cutting it into east and west pastures. With the organization of Potter County, Amarillo became its seat located on the Ranch’s eastern boundary. Sanborn decided to develop townsites in the new fast-growing town.

With the influx of new businesses and residences, the ranch owners, in 1892, opted to end their partnership, with Sanborn retaining his town properties and the Randall County land, while Glidden became the sole owner of the remainder of the Frying Pan properties.

According to their new agreement, Sanborn would run the ranch for two more years, and make the $150,000 mortgage payment to Isaac L. Ellwood, Glidden’s associate in the barbed wire business. By 1894, when the contract expired, Glidden and Sanborn had disposed of all the Frying Pan cattle, with Ellwood taking the 3-year-olds, numbering about 5,000 head. Subsequently, the ranch land was cut up into various pastures and leased out.

In 1898, Glidden transferred the Frying Pan to his son-in-law, William Henry Bush of Chicago for $68,000. Later, Bush’s half-brother, James A. Bush, became its manager in 1906. In 1908, the town of Bushland was established as a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf line about 14 miles west of Amarillo.

Following the ranch’s division but prior to 1920, W.H. and Ruth Bush built a new, more spacious ranch house, near Tecovas Spring, around which Ruth planted some trees. Later, it became the residence of the late Stanley Marsh III and his wife, Wendy, a granddaughter of W.H. Bush: subsequently Marsh dubbed the place “Toad Hall.”

To this day, Bush heirs continue to manage the ranch properties, now known as the Bush Estate. The Frying Pan brand is still in use, as well. As for Tecovas Spring, the old stone springhouse bears a memorial plaque as a tribute to the early days. Amarillo’s Western Avenue runs along the ranch’s original eastern boundary. Overall, the Frying Pan truly was one ranch that was built on barbed wire.