Waggoner Ranch Commissary

The Waggoner Ranch Commissary represents the large ranch that provided for its own during the growth and development of the cattle industry in the West. It stands for family continuity over the generations and for the impact of oil discovery on ranch land.

The ranch’s story began when 20-year-old Daniel Waggoner traveled from Tennessee to Hopkins County, Texas, in 1848. He married Nancy Moore and, two years later with a 14-year-old black boy as help, Dan trailed 242 head of cattle and six horses into Wise County. He established the Waggoner Ranch in the early 1850s and continued adding to his herd and landholdings.

The couple’s only son, William Tom, or “W.T.,” was born in 1852. Nancy died soon after, and Dan married Syclly “Ann” Halsell in 1859. He and his young son grew close, sharing a love of ranching and horses, ambition and hard work.

With the frontier moving westward, father and son moved the ranch headquarters to the junction of China Creek and Red River in northwestern Wichita County, just north of present-day Electra. The town was named for W.T.’s pampered only daughter. Around 1885, he built loading pens for his cattle. He also constructed houses for his employees and hands, a large wooden store, and the stone commissary, which now stands at the National Ranching Heritage Center. I held supplies needed by the ranch cowboys.

The commissary was an integral part of large outfits. Their vast size, plus the long distances to a town created the need for ranches to purchase food and supplies in bulk. They were dispensed by the cook or foreman at no charge to the cowboys, who stayed in distant line camps. Built similar to a half-dugout, the stone walls kept the structure cool in the summer and protected items inside from freezing in the winter. Since the Waggoner Commissary was a storehouse, it held only supplies in bulk, such as huge sacks of flour, barrels of sugar, tins of salt, coffee and lard, plus canned vegetables and dried fruit. These were freighted in by wagon from Decatur, some 200 miles away.

The Waggoner name was associated with people who pioneered ranching and devoted their energies and finances to the development of the society in which they lived. The ranch grew to more than a half-million acres spread over six Texas counties. It was the largest ranch under one fence in the United States.