The NRHC keeps its eyes toward ranching’s future while celebrating and honoring its past.
If the birth of an idea has an anniversary, then the historic ranch museum at Texas Tech University is 60 years old. If an idea needs boots on the ground, an impressive grand opening, hills and trees and thousands of visitors, then July 2026 will mark the 50th anniversary of the National Ranching Heritage Center.
Lady Bird Johnson spoke in the main gallery of what was originally called the Ranching Heritage Center on July 2,1976, and the former first lady praised the pioneers who "worked, endured and built … in a forbidding land."
During the four-day celebration, movie and television star Dale Robertson rode horseback with Ranching Heritage Association members as they climaxed a Longhorn steer trail drive led by Charles Schreiner III of the YO Ranch near Kerrville, Texas.
The symbolic cattle drive started a week earlier, moving Longhorns through the streets of San Antonio, Kerrville, San Angelo, Stamford, Midland and downtown Lubbock until they reached the opening of the Ranching Heritage Center.
Nearly 25,000 visitors toured the center during the four days of opening activities, and an estimated 8,000 more witnessed the arena activities, dedication ceremonies and related events. It was truly a grand opening.
A Vision Takes Shape
"How early ranchers adapted to a harsh frontier environment is a story told by the structures they built," explained Jim Bret Campbell, executive director of the National Ranching Heritage Center and Ranching Heritage Association. "It is difficult in this century to find clear recollections of ranch life on the frontier, but much of the early era of ranching is reflected and preserved in the historic structures at our center."
Where did the idea of a living history ranch museum come from? During a 1966 visit to an outdoor history museum in Norway, then-Texas Tech President Grover E. Murray conceived the idea of developing an outdoor museum to preserve and interpret the history of ranching in North America.
Murray sat down with historian W. Curry Holden to discuss the vision for a multicultural museum complex that would represent the birth, growth and maturity of ranching west of the Mississippi River much like Colonial Williamsburg represents the nation's history east of the Mississippi.
Murray's concept included a display idea for a living history ranch headquarters, but transforming his plan to reality took 10 years, a multitude of helpers and guidance from Holden.
Not only was Holden a noted historian who had written three books about Texas ranching, but he also was a Texas Tech Horn Professor in the Department of History and had been the founding director of the West Texas Museum at Texas Tech. He knew museums and he knew ranching. Murray and Holden were the perfect match.
Holden and his wife Frances, a Texas Tech graduate with a master’s degree in history, became invaluable to developing a headquarters representing ranching from the 1780s to the 1950s. This would be a monument to the Old West.
In 1966, a veritable Who’s Who list of area ranchers as well as business and professional men and women met with Murray to plan a ranching association initially named the Ranch Headquarters Association, that would serve as a nonprofit educational corporation organized to assist the university in development of the ranch headquarters.
In the Beginning
In an address to the annual convention of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in 1967, Murray said details of “the historically vital” project would be developed by the Holdens as co-chairs and would include well-known ranchers D Burns, John F. Lott Sr., Frank H. Chappell Jr. and Howard Hampton.
“It will include a dugout as used in the 1870s by cattlemen as a headquarters and later as a line camp,” Murray said, laying out his plan. “It will feature a box and strip house, authentic down to the last iron nail and starkly furnished, representative of homes built in 1885 when the first lumber was hauled in from remote rail points.
“Plans call for a nearby windmill with an elevated tank and the mill house. The major and imposing ranch house of the 1910 period (after a cattleman had built up a sizable operation) would be built either of wood or stone. It will be in character from the coal oil lamps to a rosewood piano.”
The Texas Tech president said every item of the buildings and their furnishings “will be the real thing.” He cited a chuck house, bunkhouse, blacksmith shop and ranch barn as examples.
"Everything must be authentically furnished to give the impression the owner just stepped out the door," he said.
Searching for Historic Structures
The association acquired several historic ranch structures and expanded the exhibit concept to include a historical park called Ranch Headquarters to represent the growth period of ranching. They formed committees to locate and design the building, so it would be part of the new Museum of Texas Tech University already being formed on campus.
The blacksmith shop from the Renderbrook Spade Ranch became the first structure to stand at the newly created Ranch Headquarters.
The Milk and Meat House from the JA Ranch was the first building to arrive, but it was still disassembled from the move when the blacksmith shop was brought to Lubbock.
The 1905 box-and-strip upper story to the two-story dugout arrived in 1971 from the Lazy S Whiteface Camp near Whiteface, Texas. The upper story needed to be placed over a dugout. Park workers dug and then lined up concrete blocks for stability before adding dirt walls.
The donation and arrival of these buildings marked such a success for ranch museum planners that the Texas Legislature appropriated funding for further preparation of the site.
By 1974 the Ranch Headquarters had three windmills and 19 buildings installed on site with restoration in progress. In 1975, the name of the museum was changed to the Ranching Heritage Center, and an official opening date was set for 1976 to coincide with the U.S. Bicentennial Celebration.
In 1999, the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents designated 16 acres of the center as Proctor Park in honor of Foy Proctor (1896-1988), who owned cattle ranches in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and had a cattle-buying partnership in Nebraska. He received the 1984 National Golden Spur Award honoring his leadership in the livestock industry.
Today the 19-acre historic park contains 55 ranching structures representing the 1780s to the 1950s.
Creating Tradition
As the historic park took shape, so did the traditions and public programs that would define it.
From 1970 through 1971, the 12-acre site was opened to visitors for only one day in October for the Ranching Headquarters Association annual meeting. Volunteers in period dress presented activities and demonstrations in three of the historic structures.
Among the Center’s earliest public traditions was Ranch Day. The event received its official name in 1972 when Gov. Preston Smith proclaimed Oct. 7 as Ranch Day, recognizing the Ranch Headquarters’ efforts “to preserve the ranching heritage and its visual symbols.” Five years later, the center celebrated its first birthday with the first official Ranch Day, launching what would become one of its signature annual traditions. Today, thousands of visitors gather every spring to celebrate Ranch Day.
Beyond Ranch Day, the center developed a broader calendar of events and public programs that became central to its mission. Annual events such as Ranch Day, Summer Stampede Western Art & Gear Show, National Golden Spur Award Honors and Candlelight at the Ranch evolved into cornerstone experiences that connect visitors directly to the story of ranching.
“Those are critical ways that we tell our story, and there was a time when those were our main focus,” Campbell said. “They are still a huge focus, but now we are doing all of these other things in addition to events.”
Growth and Expansion
The name of the historic park and the museum building changed as acreage grew and new donors became interested in preserving and interpreting ranch history.
As diverse as the activities were at the Ranching Heritage Center, it was sometimes forgotten that it was still part of the Museum at Texas Tech. The board of the Ranching Heritage Association petitioned the Board of Regents for a separation so the Ranching Heritage Center could further develop.
In 1998 that separation was made, and the Ranching Heritage Center was reorganized as an individual museum and historical park. The name of the center changed in 1999 to the National Ranching Heritage Center to reflect the bigger influences of the museum, and it expanded to 16 acres.
The center continued to grow as it acquired realistic outdoor art and built permanent art and artifacts collections. Significant additions to the main building more than doubled its size and included the Christine DeVitt Wing and the north addition with its Red McCombs Main Gallery and 6666 Ranch Main Entrance Plaza.
In 2001, the center purchased the first six life-size bronze steers and continued to add to the herd until 19 bronze Longhorns were sculpted and placed at the front of the center in a natural setting as the focal point of J.J. Gibson Memorial Park. Each animal carries the brand of its donor, including some of the most historic ranches in Texas. The park-like area was named to honor the memory of longtime Four Sixes Ranch Manager J.J. Gibson of Guthrie, Texas.[JG9]
In 2006, the primary museum and office building became the DeVitt-Mallet Ranch Museum after the $3 million Christine DeVitt Wing was added to provide staff offices, museum storage, curatorial workspace, an education room and a board room.
The main building was named to honor the late David M. DeVitt, founder, owner and manager of the Mallet Ranch in the Texas counties of Cochran, Hockley, Yoakum and Terry. As a young man he was a newspaper reporter for the Brooklyn (New York) Eagle. In 1882, he and was sent to write a story on the development of the ranching industry on the West Texas free range. The result of his visit was DeVitt establishing the Mallett Land and Cattle Co. 21 years later, managing 52,000 acres of ranch land and discovering oil on those acres.
His daughters, Christine DeVitt and Helen DeVitt Jones, became well-known philanthropists and established foundations from the Mallet Ranch revenue. They used the money to support educational institutions and social and cultural programs, including the National Ranching Heritage Center.
Today the historic park alone covers 19 acres, while the entire complex includes more than 30 acres and a 44,000-square-foot museum with seven galleries.[GJ10]
Modern Day Expansion
For more than 50 years the National Ranching Heritage Center has worked to keep the history and heritage of ranching in front of a mainstream audience, but the audience has changed through the decades.
“We want to continue telling our story of heritage and history," Campbell said, "but we started to realize that many people coming through our door don't have a clear idea of what a ranch is. We have more than 75,000 visitors a year, but history may not be the only story we need to tell when so many people have a real disconnect with agriculture.”
In 2017, rancher and author John R. Erickson was already well-known across the country. He had sold millions of his “Hank the Cowdog” children's books and had a fan base of several generations growing up on Hank books, but they were all fiction adventures.
Erickson began partnering with the center to write five nonfiction Hank books called the “Ranch Life Learning” series. These books humorously teach readers about ranch life and livestock basics, ranch wildlife, ranch hands, horses, weather and ranching as a business through the voice of Hank.
Julie Hodges, National Ranching Heritage Center Helen DeVitt Jones Endowed director of education, worked with school curriculum specialists to create lesson plans and an activity guide for each book. Today, “Ranch Life Learning,” is part of the National Ag in the Classroom curriculum.
According to Hodges, thousands of books have been sent to more than 550 school districts in four states since the partnership began.
Building on that success, the center created a permanent home for experiential learning in 2023. When the Cash Family Foundation gave a lead gift of $3.5 million — the largest single gift in the center's history – nearly 90 additional donors contributed gifts to build a new learning center geared toward children and forge a new emphasis in the center’s mission.
The $8.2 million Cash Family Ranch Life Learning Center addition allows visitors to experience ranch life through hands-on exhibits and educational programs. The indoor-outdoor, permanent exhibit provides an accurate, adult-level ranch life experience through the character of everyone’s friend, Hank the Cowdog.
With Hank as the guide, visitors explore what life on Hank’s ranch is like. Indoor exhibits highlight aspects of modern ranching while the outdoor exhibit brings Hank’s M-Cross ranch to life. An outdoor amphitheater provides space for programmed events by industry professionals and the center’s staff.
To date, more than 45,000 visitors, including 22,000 students on field trips, have visited the Cash Family Ranch Life Learning Center.
Creating The Red Steagall Institute
Architectural plans and funding efforts are underway for the newest addition to the National Ranching Heritage Center. The Red Steagall Institute for Traditional Western Arts will honor excellence in Western writing and music, leatherworking, metalworking, painting and sculpture.
“The institute will not be a museum or a hall of fame," Campbell said. "It will be a learning institute dedicated to preserving, passing forward and providing the public with rich stories told through traditional Western art. Through full-time workshops and studio spaces, masters in residence will demonstrate for the public and scholars the techniques of their trade, including bit and spur making, painting and sculpting, song and poetry and the written word.
"These pieces will be properly housed and cared for by preservation specialists, but they will also be available to the public for viewing, examination and study. These treasures won't be tucked away, never to be seen again or lost to time. The goal is to make them accessible and pass them on to the next generation of Western artists and art appreciators.”
The center’s founders 50 years ago were rebuilding historic structures to tell the ranching story.
Today, with 2,000 members in 50 states and four countries, the center is building partnerships to preserve and educate the public on all aspects of ranching life, both past and present.