Buffalo Gap Cemetery
Buffalo Gap, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest public cemetery in Taylor County; used by residents of Buffalo Gap even before the earliest known headstones were erected, about 1877. In the older section of the ten-acre plot are 146 graves, many of Civil War veterans and pioneer citizens of Taylor County. Tract is still in use. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Buffalo Gap Cemetery is the oldest public burial ground in Taylor County, in use by the community even before its earliest known headstones appeared around 1877. The older section of the ten-acre tract holds 146 graves, among them many Civil War veterans and pioneer families who first settled this stretch of West Texas. Still active today, it stands as a record of the county's founding generation.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the memory of the Civil War veterans and pioneers who established permanent Anglo settlement in West Texas after the frontier opened.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Buffalo Gap
Buffalo Gap, TX
Buffalo Gap takes its name from the pass in the Callahan Divide that funneled the great herds — buffalo that fed the Apache and Comanche and later drew white hunters around 1874, whose dugouts became the town's first homes. Named county seat in 1878 and sitting on the Western Cattle Trail, it briefly flourished, only to be eclipsed in 1883 when the railroad crowned nearby Abilene as county seat. Its rise and decline mirror dozens of small Texas towns that lived and died by the trail and the rail.
Vicinity of Indian Fight
Buffalo Gap, TX
On August 29, 1863, Lt. T.C. Wright and eleven Texas state troopers overtook a party of raiders, probably Comanches, driving stolen horses north from Mason County. Forced to charge uphill against a larger, determined foe, the outnumbered soldiers, two badly wounded by arrows, finally broke off, and the raiders escaped with the herd. A lone rider slipped away in the dark to summon an ambulance from Camp Colorado, forty-five miles distant.
The Ernie Wilson Museum
Buffalo Gap, TX
Housed in Taylor County's first courthouse and jail, this limestone building was not finished until 1880—two years after the county organized—delayed by frontier Indian scares and scarce funds. In its rough early days it saw frequent jailbreaks and lynchings, and cannonballs still key its limestone blocks. Today it serves as the Ernie Wilson Museum, preserving the story of West Texas frontier justice.
Cedar Gap Community
Abilene, TX
First called Coates for early settler Kem Coates, the Cedar Gap community took shape in the late 1800s as families from Robertson County put down roots, organized a Baptist church, and opened a school. Transportation made the town: a stagecoach pike ran south from Abilene toward Content, and in 1909 the Abilene & Southern Railway pushed through on its way to San Angelo, its frame waiting station and construction jobs drawing more residents. A blacksmith, general store, cotton gin, and lodge rounded out its life before the school consolidated away in 1948 and the community faded to a cemetery.