Old Campsite of Jesse and Frank James
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Famous western frontier outlaws, who had many Texas hideouts along a line from the Rio Grande to the Red River. The camps - extending into Missouri, their home state - were used for hiding stolen horses until posses could be thrown off the trail. The campsites were sometimes known to scattered settlers, who feared or befriended the bandits. Also, friendly with the James brothers (and also operating sometimes in Texas) were fellow Missouri outlaws, Cole Younger and "Bandit Queen" Belle Starr. This was an era of widespread lawlessness in Texas. Billy the Kid roamed into West Texas. The Daltons, John Wesley Hardin, Cullen Baker, Bill Longley, Sam Bass and many others found it easy to kill and rob and then hid in wild areas where they were beyond the reach of local officers, and food was plentiful. After reconstruction ended in 1874, Texas Rangers were reorganized, to restore respect for the law. Given special powers, in 1889-90 they arrested 579 wanted men (including 76 alleged murders). Jesse James and some other notorious badmen by then were dead. Frank, reformed, worked as a salesman in Dallas, Paris, and other Texas towns.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This spot recalls the lawless years after the Civil War, when outlaws like Jesse and Frank James kept a chain of hideouts across Texas from the Rio Grande to the Red River, stashing stolen horses until posses lost the trail. The era produced a rogues' gallery—Cole Younger, Belle Starr, John Wesley Hardin, Sam Bass and others—who robbed and killed and vanished into wild country. Order returned only after the Texas Rangers were reorganized in the 1870s and given broad arrest powers.
Why it matters
It marks the turbulent frontier interval between Reconstruction and the coming of settled law, when the reorganized Texas Rangers finally reasserted state authority over the outlaw West.
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Related people
- · Jesse James
- · Frank James
- · Cole Younger
- · Belle Starr
Themes & tags
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