dual personalities

Today we toast Oliver Loving (December 4, 1812 – September 25, 1867) who was an American rancher and pioneer of the cattle drive. Together with Charles Goodnight, he developed the Goodnight-Loving Trail.

He was mortally wounded by Indians while on a cattle drive and died 151 years ago today. You may recall that Larry McMurtry borrowed his manner of death and the fact that Goodnight transported his body back to Texas for his character Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove.

Loving County, Texas, the second least-populace county in the United States in population, is named in his honor.

You can read more about the trail here.

Well, it may be time to dig out Lonesome Dove, the mini series.

“Here’s to the sunny slopes of long ago.”