Lifetime Leaders of Rodeo & Ranching Rodeo Ranching Great Westerner Western Entertaiment & Arts Rodeo Producers & Livestock Special Achievement Cowboy Long Rider Legacy Award

Ranching

John Winfield Goodall
1999 Hall of Fame Ranching Inductee

  John Winfield Goodall was born in born in Portland, Oregon, in 1857 and made his way to the North Dakota Badlands in the 1880’s via Missouri, Idaho, Utah, Texas and Wyoming. John was known as a good hand with cattle and horses and, by 1883, he was the foreman of the Marquis de Mores’ Badlands ranching operations.

 In 1884, he was the foreman of the massive Little Missouri River Livestock Roundup organized by rancher Theodore Roosevelt (John considered Roosevelt one of his close friends). The roundup had more than 100 riders and 10 chuckwagons.

 John also scouted and selected the route for the Marquis’ Medora to Deadwood Stage Line. He rode the first stage run to Deadwood in 1884. Following the break-up of the de Mores cattle operations in Medora, the French Nobleman telegraphed John, informing him that he wanted him involved in the building of a railroad across the French Colonies in Indochina. However, the Marquis was killed on an African hunting trip before the venture got underway.

 In 1886, John married Mary Coleman in Kansas City and returned to Dickinson to open a livery barn. In 1890, he was elected sheriff of Stark County. As sheriff, he was known among villains, footpads and rustlers as a man not to be trifled with.

 Later, John and his brother, Brooks, established the Y Cross Ranch in McKenzie County. In 1903, then President Theodore Roosevelt appointed John the commissioner-at-large and supervisor of reservation livestock for several Indian agencies. In 1912, John returned to the Y Cross Ranch, where he died in 1931 at age 74.

 Upon John’s death, North Dakota Governor George Schafer said, “John Goodall was gold, that’s all. No sham, no trickery. He was square, frank, broad-gauged and true to every obligation.”