Guild member and 2018 Netherthorpe Award winner Ewan Pate has recently launched a new book. The Dundee Matadors tells the story of a huge ranching company, the Matador Land and Cattle Company from its founding in 1882 to its sale in 1951. Over 69 eventful years it grew from its base in the Texas Panhandle into an operation extending into the Dakotas, Montana and even across the Canadian border into Saskatchewan. At its peak the Texas ranch alone covered 1.5 million acres and was home to over 90,000 cattle.
The Matador business was only one of 31 UK-funded cattle enterprises set up to take advantage of a booming market for beef in the early 1880’s. It was however to be by far the longest lasting mainly due to close supervision by its Dundee-based board of directors. The ranch, which had been founded on virgin prairie only three years earlier was bought in 1882 by six Dundee businessmen, all but one connected to the hugely profitable jute industry. The sixth was a farmer and cattle breeder from near Montrose.
The directors set up a system of communications between Dundee and the Texas Panhandle which saw letters crossing the Atlantic both ways on a weekly basis. The Texans knew what the directors were thinking and vice versa. That, and annual visits by the Scots to the ranch, over 4,500 miles away, helped build up a structure which was to withstand droughts, bitterly cold winters and wild fluctuations in the markets.
On the Texas side the Dundonians were more than fortunate to have a fellow Scot, Murdo Mackenzie and then members of his family in charge from 1890 to 1951. With good reason President Theodore Roosevelt called Mackenzie the “most influential of all the western cattlemen.”
Ewan said: “A series of amazing coincidences led to me writing this book. It started out as simply a history of the business but before long it also became the story of the tremendous characters involved on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Copies of The Dundee Matadors are available from www.southpowrie.co.uk or most booksellers.
Harvest Lunch 2026
Our annual harvest celebration is the perfect opportunity to catch up with friends, colleagues and network with other agricultural communicators.
