History

he City of Tahoka was founded and began as a cotton farming and cattle ranching community with T-Bar Ranch. T-Bar Ranch in Crosby County was established in 1883. When he sold his land the ranch corporation was moved to Double Lakes in Lynn County. From his new headquarters Edwards began to buy and lease additional acreage and to build his herd through purchases of cattle from other ranchers. In November 1883 he formed the Tahoka Cattle Company with three partners, W. C. Young, Jasper Hayes, and L. S. Gholson. The new organization was chartered to exist for thirty years. Though the owners did not begin to patent land as the Tahoka Cattle Company until 1895, the T-Bar grew to some 87,000 acres within a few years.

By the 1890s the T-Bar, which at its height was one of the largest ranches in the South Plains, had become central to the Lynn County economy. During the 1890s the large ranches in Lynn County prospered, but at the beginning of the twentieth century farmers began to move into the county, and the cattlemen were forced to give up their grazing rights as their leases on state-owned lands expired.

By 1923 only the T-Bar survived because Cass Edwards had the capital to purchase property as it became available. Even so, his ranch lost leases on 17,000 acres between 1902 and 1910. Today, within the vicinity of Tahoka, cotton farms and cotton gins can still be found.