Grey Mule Saloon
Ft. Stockton, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Part of Old Fort Stockton; built in 1880's. Hangout for cowboys and hotel guests. Later a store and post office. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in the 1880s as part of the settlement around Fort Stockton, the Grey Mule Saloon was a gathering place for cowboys and hotel guests in this West Texas frontier town. In later years the building served more sober purposes as a store and post office. It survives as a relic of the cattle-country West.
Why it matters
The saloon is a tangible piece of the rough-and-ready world that grew up around frontier military posts, where soldiers, cowboys, and travelers mingled on the edge of settlement.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Annie Riggs Hotel
Ft. Stockton, TX
Built in 1900, the Annie Riggs Hotel was Fort Stockton's first hotel of real significance, an adobe building trimmed with "gingerbread" woodwork. Its wide verandas, dining room, parlors, and guest rooms welcomed travelers passing through the West Texas town. The hotel remains a landmark of the region's turn-of-the-century frontier hospitality.
Site of Fort Stockton
Ft. Stockton, TX
Founded on the Comanche Trail in 1859, Fort Stockton guarded the San Antonio-San Diego mail route and was named for Commodore Robert Field Stockton, who had helped seize California for the United States. Federal troops abandoned it during the Civil War and reoccupied it in 1867 as the army worked to curb Comanche raids and protect westward travel. The post was permanently abandoned in 1886 as the frontier it policed faded away.
Young's Store
Ft. Stockton, TX
F. W. Young, a former post sutler at Fort Stockton, built his store and home in 1876 at the ford over Comanche Creek, with a wagon yard and corrals out back. Positioned at a natural crossing on the frontier, it served travelers, soldiers, and the growing town alike. The building marks the shift from selling to soldiers on the post to serving a civilian community taking root beside the fort.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church
Ft. Stockton, TX
As U.S. troops reoccupied Fort Stockton after the Civil War, Catholic faith followed the frontier garrison into far West Texas. Fathers Claude Jaillet and Adolfo Guichon held the first services in 1872, and three years later parishioners began raising a church of adobe on a stone foundation, on land donated by Peter Gallagher. Built with the materials at hand in a remote desert outpost, St. Joseph's has served its community since, remodeled but enduring.