Say chuck wagon and you think of cowboys and cattle drives, campfires and hearty meals. For 21 years, about 30 chuck wagons from across the country competed in Amarillo for the World Championship Chuck Wagon Roundup. They set up near the Amarillo National Center on the Tri-State Fairgrounds during Cowboy Roundup USA.

This competition has not been held since 2008.


Chuck Wagon history
The chuck wagon was invented in the 1870's by Col. Charles Goodnight, an Amarillo area rancher and former Texas Ranger. Goodnight is a western legend who established the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon, first cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle, and helped blaze one of the major cattle trails, the Goodnight-Loving Trail, from Texas into eastern New Mexico and Colorado. Goodnight saw a need for a rolling kitchen on the long cattle drives that were the norm in the 1870's and 1880's. He converted an old army wagon into a chuck wagon and the idea quickly caught on throughout the cattle industry. Every major cattle ranch used a chuck wagon on its spread and cattle drives. Soon, a good chuck wagon cook became a valuable part of the ranch operation as ranchers used good food as a way to recruit and retain the best cowboys. Top of Page

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