Bovina
Bovina, Parmer County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Elevation: 4070 feet) Early in the 20th century, this was one of largest cattle shipping points in the United States. Originated as the Hay Hook Line Camp of the XIT -- famed ranch that received over 3,000,000 acres of land in payment for building Texas State Capitol, 1882-1888. One of the earliest structures in Parmer County, division number eight headquarters of XIT, stood 400 yards northeast of site of this marker. The shipping pasture, 640 acres in area, was 1 mile east. The Pecos & Northern Texas Railroad built to this point in 1898, and cattle for eastern markets were loaded here. Train crews called the place "Bull Town", but the community chose the name "Bovina" when establishing the post office in 1899. This was the first post office in Parmer County, created 1876, named for Martin Parmer (1778-1850), patriot and signer of Texas Declaration of Independence. Although known to explorers early as 18th century, county had few inhabitants before 1907, when it was organized, with Bovina one of its leading towns. By 1915, Bovina had 200 people, 2 churches, a bank, a school, and a hotel for prospective settlers. It is now market and supply center for rich area of irrigated farms, and still produces fine cattle. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bovina began as the Hay Hook Line Camp of the legendary XIT Ranch, the three-million-acre spread Texas granted in payment for building its state capitol. When the Pecos & Northern Texas Railroad reached the site in 1898, cattle poured onto rail cars bound for eastern markets, and for a time this was one of the largest shipping points in the nation — cowhands called it "Bull Town" before the town chose the name Bovina in 1899. From a frontier line camp it grew into the market center of a rich irrigated-farming county.
Why it matters
Bovina charts the Panhandle's shift from open-range cattle empire to railroad shipping hub to irrigated farm country — the full transformation of the High Plains.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Martin Parmer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Dawn
Dawn, TX
Named by hopeful pioneers who saw in it "the dawning of a new country," Dawn gained the county's second post office in 1889. Its first building was a Santa Fe Railroad boxcar pressed into service as a station house in 1905, and W.E. Neal and his sons developed the townsite in earnest in 1914 with a lumber yard, hotel, bank, and store. It settled into life as a center of the surrounding farming country.
Running Water Community
Plainview, TX
Drawn by the reliable water of Running Water Draw, the Morrison brothers founded a ranch here in 1881, and cattleman C.C. Slaughter later joined the operation that employed most of the area's early settlers. In 1890 Dennis Rice opened a post office in his dugout and set out to build a town, staging a Fourth of July barbecue in 1892 to sell lots; soon Running Water had a blacksmith, grist mill, store, churches, and school. But when the railroad bypassed it in 1928, the community faded — the post office moved to Edmondson in 1935, and by 1937 the settlement itself had taken that name.
The Santa Fe Railroad in Plainview
Plainview, TX
Operating in the Panhandle since 1886, the Santa Fe Railroad planned around 1900 to push into the rich farmland of the South Plains. Plainview's leaders raised $75,000 to court a connection, and on December 31, 1906, the first train arrived to end the town's isolation. Land agents soon brought trainloads of prospective settlers, and a courthouse, schools, an opera house, and Wayland's new institute rose in the boom that followed.
Site of Parmerton
Bovina, TX
Parmerton began as Parmer Switch on the Pecos & Northern Texas Railroad in 1898 and grew when a model farm using the Campbell dry-farming method took root there in 1906. A townsite company laid out streets in 1907, and Parmerton briefly became the county seat with its own post office. But when nearby Farwell won the county seat later that year, residents literally packed up and moved their houses away, leaving only the railroad switch to mark the spot.