It was not the first ranch in West Texas, but after its formation in the 18th century, it became the largest single operation in the cow country of the Old West and covered 3 million acres, fenced.

"The Story of the Shamrock is essentially the saga of the Southwest during the last quarter of a century. In a way it is the story of the frontier of America in modern setting and brief compass, the chronicle of this region's progress in capsule form, the panorama of a period taken with a telescopic lens."--Page 3

The Alamo Mission Bell was cast in 1722 for the Mission San Antonio de Valero, known as the Alamo, where it hung for many years. From there, as the story goes, it was being taken to the mission at Refugio when the cart in which it was being hauled broke down, and the bell was left beside the road near the San Antonio River.

Littlefield was both a personality and a practical force, one of the prime movers in an extending empire of grass. A Southern, he rode forth for the Confederacy with the Texas Rangers and retired for wounds received. Above all else, he was a "cowman."