Spade Ranch (Texas)

Spade Ranch was the name of two separate West Texas ranches under separate ownership, before being combined by Isaac L. Ellwood.

The first ranch, in the Texas panhandle, was started by John F. "Spade" Evans on August 25, 1880, after Evans purchased 23 pieces of land in Donley County.

During the January 1886 blizzard, the Snyder brothers sold the land to Isaac L. Ellwood.

They placed barbed wire across the land, and replaced the cattle with Herefords in 1919, as they are better suited to the dry climate of Texas.

In 1924, the northern part of the land put on sale, selling 6,300 cattle that October.