Charles Goodnight grew up in Texas and served for several years with the Texas Rangers, then, during the Civil War, with the Confederate Army, spending most of his time as part of a frontier regiment. After the war, he and Oliver Loving joined a near state-wide round-up of Texas Longhorn cattle that had roamed free during the four long years of war, driving them northward from West Texas to the railroads, along what would become known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail, which eventually extended from New Mexico through Colorado to Wyoming. Goodnight invented the chuck-wagon, which was first used on the initial cattle drive. For several years he and his wife resided in Pueblo, where he had considerable financial success investing in real estate. Goodnight's old barn still stands off Highway 96 west of Pueblo. Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove is a fictionalized account of Goodnight and Loving's third cattle drive.
Most of the information to create this series came from the following three books: Pueblo, an Illustrated History by Eleanor Fry & Ione Miller. 2001. Heritage Media Corp. Carlsbad, CA Pueblo, a Pictorial History by Joanne West Dodds. 1982. The Donning Company/Publishers. Norfolk, VA They All Came to Pueblo: a Social History by Joanne West Dodds. 1994. The Donning Company/Publishers. Virginia Beach, VA