My all-time favorite movie is Lonesome Dove, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Larry McMurtry. In addition to enjoying the four part series, I’ve read the novel more than once. The nearly six and a half hour epic runs at my house at least a couple times a year, usually more. It’s a story of the epic journey of two former Texas Rangers who are determined to be the first to drive cattle from Texas to Montana. Through the course of their travels they encounter devastating obstacles, the loss of life, and incredible disappointment.
The sweeping scenes of wide open frontier and the life along the trail are some of the best ever recorded. The interactions of the characters creates depth and authenticity. The relationship between Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae is so tightly woven that it is often used as an example of true friendship. As dramatic as Lonesome Dove paints the story of human relationships, and committed friendship overall, it falls short of the depth which can be found in non-fiction.
Charles Goodnight 
Oliver Loving
The story of Lonesome Dove, though fictional, draws elements from the story of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. Goodnight and Loving blazed a cattle trail from Texas through New Mexico and into Colorado. The characters of Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae shared considerable similarities to Goodnight and Loving, and though the trail may have been different, many of the circumstances of their lives were part of the story of Lonesome Dove.
On a cattle drive in 1867, Loving started out ahead of the drive. He had taken one man with him as a scout, Bill Wilson. The pair were attacked by Comanches and hid among some bluffs near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Loving was critically wounded and he sent Wilson for help. Some Mexican traders found Loving and helped him on to Fort Sumner. When Goodnight arrived in Fort Sumner, Loving was on the edge of death and he requested that Goodnight take him back to Texas to be buried. Loving was temporarily buried in Fort Sumner, but four months later, he was taken back to Texas to be buried in Weatherford.
Both Goodnight and Loving have towns named after them — Goodnight, Texas and Loving, New Mexico. Goodnight, Texas is located in the Texas Panhandle in Armstrong County on Highway 287 between Amarillo and Clarendon. Near Goodnight, Texas is the home Charles Goodnight built for his wife, Molly. The home and property are now the Charles Goodnight Heritage Center. The home was undergoing a restoration at the time these pictures were taken. You can find more up-to-date pictures on the CGHC website.
Charles and Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight are buried in Goodnight Cemetery just north of Goodnight, Texas.
There was another historical figure who played a major role in the lives of both Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight. Bose Ikard, a former slave was one of Goodnight’s most trusted acquaintances. He worked for Loving many years and after Loving’s death he continued to work with Goodnight. Upon his death, Ikard was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Texas; the same cemetery in which Oliver Loving had been buried. Goodnight ordered a marker for Ikard with the following inscription: “Bose Ikard served with me four years on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, never shirked a duty or disobeyed an order, rode with me in many stampedes, participated in three engagements with Comanches, splendid behavior.” Fans of Lonesome Dove will recognize the similarity between that inscription and the one Woodrow Call carves for Joshua Deets.
Bose Ikard 
Bose Ikard Epitaph
There is so much more to the stories of these men than can be placed in a short blog post. However, if you find yourself in the empty plains of the Texas Panhandle or the city of Weatherford, Texas just west of Fort Worth, it would be worth your time to stop and pay respects to three men who blazed the cattle trails of the West and helped shape history.
