This is the wild story of how Texas traded land for their Texas capitol building. This is the paper that inspired Anne’s Ten In Texas novel. The acquisition of three million acres of rangeland in the Panhandle, the construction of a state capitol building, and the creation of the XIT Ranch is a big, fantastic story that could only happen in Texas. Timing made the XIT possible. Spanish cattle, railroad building, technological and business innovation, settlers seeking a better life in the west after the Civil War, and the millions of acres of land owned by the state of Texas came together to create one of the largest ranches in the world. Anne Haw Holt writing as A. H. Holt