On this day in 1876, Charles Goodnight and John G. Adair drew up the contract that brought the JA Ranch into being. The JA is the oldest privately owned cattle ranch in the Panhandle. Goodnight had met Adair, an English aristocrat interested in going into the cattle business, in Denver. Adair agreed to furnish the capital Goodnight needed to build up his "Home Ranch" in Armstrong County. The five-year contract provided for two-thirds of the property and profit to go to Adair and one-third to Goodnight. At Goodnight's suggestion the ranch was named for Adair's initials.

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