Electra Waggoner
Read Part 2 in our March issue
his land holding, adding 15,000 acres
he purchased near Cactus Hill, a few
miles west of what is now Decatur.
One big attraction to the area of
what is now Wise County was that
somehow, the attacks on the settlers
that plagued other cities hadn’t been
a problem there.
Dan Waggoner continued adding
land to his holdings and increasing
his herd. In 1855, Waggoner extend-
ed his ranching business into Parker
County near the Shaw Community
and built a log cabin on Spring Creek
with the help of T.J. Shaw as the
headquarters to the Parker County
operations of the Waggoner Ranch.
Waggoner hadn’t brought along
a branding iron to mark his Parker
County cattle with his signature “D”
brand so he improvised by using
an altered mule shoe to brand a
“D” onto the animals. As a result,
Waggoner’s Parker County operations
became affectionately known as,
“The Muleshoe Ranch.”
In 1956, Wise officially became
a county and the county seat was
slated to become a city. Colonel
Absalom Bishop who had played
an important role in settling Wise
County, dreamed of building a city
on a crest overlooking the rest of the
county.
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