National Ranching Heritage Center
Encyclopedia
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of ranching history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, is located on the campus of Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
in Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It features almost fifty authentic ranch buildings dating from the late 18th to the mid-20th century. These structures include a railroad depot, homesteads, barn, schoolhouse, windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
s and other historic structures.
One views the exhibits through a self-guided walking tour. It is free to the public.
Until 1999, the center was a part of the Museum of Texas Tech University
Museum of Texas Tech University
The Museum of Texas Tech University is part of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. It is made up of the main museum building, the Moody Planetarium, the Natural Science Research Laboratory, the research and educational elements of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, and the Val Verde County research...
, to which is adjacently located. It was begun by the first director of the museum, the historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and archaeologist William Curry Holden
William Curry Holden
William Curry Holden , also known as Curry Holden, was an historian and archaeologist. In 1937, he became the first director of the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. During his tenure, the museum gained regional and state recognition for excellence...
.
From 1977-1980, Jim Humphreys
Jim Humphreys
James O'Neill Humphreys, Sr., usually known as Jim Humphreys , was a prominent Texas rancher and the former board chairman of the National Ranching Heritage Center, an entity of Texas Tech University in Lubbock...
, who managed the Pitchfork Ranch
Pitchfork Ranch
The Pitchfork Ranch, established in 1883, encompasses some in Dickens and King counties in West Texas, in the United States, with an annex in Jefferson County in southern Oklahoma. Previous properties in Kansas and Wyoming have been since sold....
in Dickens and King counties from 1965–1986, was the board chairman of the center. He is considered one of the major modern figures in Texas ranching and agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
.
The heritage center has also received donations from Montie Ritchie
Montie Ritchie
Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth Ritchie , known as Montie Ritchie, was a dual British subject and American citizen who became a leading cattle rancher and businessman in the Texas Panhandle during the 20th century. From 1935-1993, he was the manager of his family-owned JA Ranch southeast of Amarillo...
, the manager of the JA Ranch
JA Ranch
The JA Ranch, jointly founded by John George Adair and Charles Goodnight, is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon section of the Texas Panhandle southeast of Amarillo. At its peak size in 1883, the JA, still run by descendants of the Adair family, encompassed some of...
southeast of Amarillo
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
from 1935 until his retirement in 1993.
Newer exhibit
The home of the wealthy African-AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
rancher, Daniel Webster Wallace (1860-1939), known as "80 John" Wallace, was built ca. 1900 in Loraine
Loraine, Texas
Loraine is a town in Mitchell County, Texas, United States. The population was 656 at the 2000 census.George H. Mahon , a former county attorney, district attorney, and U.S. representative from the Lubbock-based congressional district is interred at Loraine City Cemetery...
in Mitchell County. It is now open at the NRHC.