In the history of the tristate Panhandle region-the three corners of Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas-the saga of Henry C. Hitch and his ranch is also the story of the social, cultural, and economic fortunes of the region. Late in the nineteenth century James Kerrick Hitch left his home in Tennessee for the High Plains and fortune. After ten years spent working as a cowboy, he rode in to the Coldwater Creek region of No Man's Land, the fertile subirrigated valley that was to be his Promised Land. It was Henry Charles Hitch, James's son, who was to turn the valley and its uplands into an...