Old Tascosa
Boys Ranch, Oldham County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Old Tascosa, cowboy capital of the plains, lay one-half mile northeast. In its brief span it became the center of the open-range world, stamping ground for some of the West's most notorious bad men and focal point for cattle thieves and ranchmen. Because of the easy crossing of the Canadian River at the site, it early became a meeting place where Indians and Mexican traders (Comancheros) exchanged contraband goods, including women and children. With the passing of the buffalo came the first permanent settlement, made by Mexican sheepherders in 1876. Charles Goodnight and Thomas S. Bugbee brought the first cattle to the free-grass empire the same year. Smaller ranchmen and nesters followed and the boom was on. Hundreds of miles from the general line of settlement, Tascosa lured the lawless and the lawmen: Billy the Kids and Pat Garretts. To accommodate those who died with their boots on in growing gunfights, a cemetery was set aside in 1879. It was named for the famed 'Boot Hill' in Dodge City, Kansas, to which Tascosa was tied by cattle and freight trail. Heaviest toll in a single shoot out occurred March 21, 1886, when three cowboys and a restaurant owner died in a five-minute duel. All went to Boot Hill. The cattle trails, Tascosa's lifeblood, began to be pinched off with the coming of barbed wire, first commercial use of which was on the nearby Frying Pan Ranch in 1882. The noose was drawn still tighter when the vast XIT spread fenced its 3 million acres. By 1887 Tascosa was completely closed in. When the railroad bypassed it the same year, its fate was sealed. By the time the Oldham County seat was moved to Vega in 1915, only 15 residents remained. Sole remnants of the old town today are Boot Hill and the stone courthouse. The site, however, is occupied by Cal Farley's Boys Ranch.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Just northeast of here sprawled Old Tascosa, the self-styled cowboy capital of the Texas Panhandle. An easy crossing of the Canadian River made it a trading spot long before permanent settlement, and after the buffalo vanished, sheepherders, then cattlemen like Charles Goodnight, poured in during 1876. Isolated hundreds of miles from other towns, Tascosa drew gunmen and lawmen alike and buried its dead in its own Boot Hill—until barbed wire, the giant XIT Ranch, and a bypassing railroad choked off the open range and left it a ghost town.
Why it matters
Tascosa embodies the brief, violent heyday of the open-range West and the fencing and railroads that ended it, all in a single generation.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Charles Goodnight
- · Thomas S. Bugbee
- · Billy the Kid
- · Pat Garrett
Related events
- · Tascosa Boot Hill gunfight (1886)
- · Fencing of the XIT Ranch
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Canadian River
Amarillo, TX
For more than twelve thousand years the Canadian River served as a travel corridor and home, supporting stone and adobe Native villages between the 12th and 14th centuries. It was among the first interior rivers known to European explorers: Coronado crossed it in 1541 hunting the fabled Quivira, Oñate followed in 1601, French traders came in the 1700s, and by the 1840s it guided Santa Fe traders and California gold seekers under military escort. Even its disputed name carries this layered past.
Exploration Route of Lt. James W. Abert
Masterson, TX
In 1845, just as Texas was joining the Union, the U.S. government sent West Point topographical engineer Lt. James W. Abert and a 33-man party to map the Canadian River. Camping near this spot, Abert was visited by Kiowa who said they were at war with Texans but welcomed him once he proved to be an American, and his maps and notes on the river's geography and its native peoples became valuable to the young state and nation.
Wild Horse Lake
Amarillo, TX
This shallow playa lake on the high plains long drew buffalo, wild horses, and nomadic Native peoples, and later explorers, traders, and cattle drivers who needed reliable water in a dry country. In 1887 the lakeside became the original townsite of Amarillo, but repeated flooding pushed the town a mile east to higher ground by 1890, where it grew into the great cattle- and grain-shipping hub of the Texas Panhandle. Modern drainage has since shrunk the lake that started it all.
The Canadian River
Amarillo, TX
For more than 12,000 years the Canadian River drew people to its banks, from ancient travelers to the stone-and-adobe village builders of the 1100s–1300s. It became one of the first interior rivers Europeans knew: Coronado forded it in 1541 chasing the golden rumor of Quivira, and Oñate followed in 1601. Later it guided French traders, Santa Fe merchants like Josiah Gregg, and California-bound emigrants escorted west by Captain Marcy in 1849.