Grasslands
Grassland, Lynn County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(2 miles south) One of first land patents in South Plains, lying along a well-marked Indian trail used by explorers, U.S. Army, and (after 1880) the stages and freighters northbound from Colorado City. Grasslands Ranch (named for an estate of President Cleveland) was established 1888 by Enos L. Seeds, the 1889-1900 postmaster, who erected a fine frame house and first trading post on South Plains. Mrs. Seeds was the first permanent white woman resident in county. Nearby is grave of area's first-born white child (a son of Mr. and Mrs. Todd Wilson). Community name is now Grassland. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On the wide South Plains, this site lay along an ancient Indian trail that later carried explorers, U.S. Army columns, and — after 1880 — stagecoaches and freighters bound north from Colorado City. In 1888 Enos L. Seeds established Grasslands Ranch here, named for a Cleveland estate, building a frame house and the region's first trading post and serving as postmaster. The little community that grew up around it endures today as Grassland.
Why it matters
Grassland captures the layered story of a frontier crossroads, where a Native travel route became the spine of Anglo settlement on one of the last-settled corners of Texas.
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Related people
- · Enos L. Seeds
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lynn County
Tahoka, TX
Lynn County honors G. W. Lynn, remembered among the defenders who fell at the Alamo, but its ground tells a longer story of the South Plains. Its lakes and springs watered Indian, Spanish, army, and cattle trails; it saw the last great buffalo hunts and the U.S. Cavalry's 1874–77 campaign against the Comanches, with the final skirmish at Double Lakes in 1879. Open-range ranchers arrived in the 1880s, the county organized at Tahoka in 1903, the Santa Fe Railroad reached it in 1910, and it grew into one of the nation's leading cotton counties.
Site of Mackenzie Cavalry Camp
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On December 4, 1874, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie and two companies of the U.S. 4th Cavalry were caught by a brutal snowstorm at this spot on the Llano Estacado. With no wood, water, or grass, the troopers spent what they called the most miserable night of their Southwestern service, and several horses froze to death. Mackenzie was scouting for scattered bands during the closing weeks of the 1874 campaign to force the Southern Plains tribes onto reservations.
Spanish Explorers' Route
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This ancient road across the Llano Estacado was first traced by Native peoples and later followed by Spaniards, U.S. Army units, and cattle drovers, running from Gholson Spring past Tahoka Lake toward Big Spring and the North Concho. In the 17th century it carried Spanish visitors including Father Salas, who came from New Mexico in 1629 at the pleas of the Jumano Indians, and treasure- and pearl-seeking expeditions in 1650 and 1654. The trail knit together centuries of movement across the high plains.
Llano Estacado
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The Cap Rock Escarpment marks the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado, or "Staked Plains," one of the world's flattest and most complete plains regions, sloping upward from Texas into New Mexico. Shaped by ancient erosion of tough caliche caprock, it was crossed in 1541 by Coronado, whose expedition marveled at an endless sea of grass. Long shunned for its scarcity of water, the Llano later supported a great ranching empire and became a leading cotton and grain region.