Spring Lake
Earth, Lamb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Indian camp and watering place extensively used in hunting buffalo. Became cattle territory in 1882 when Tom Lynch drove his herds from New Mexico. After acquisition by the Capitol Syndicate this became headquarters of largest division of the XIT Ranch. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Long before fences crossed the High Plains, this spring on the Llano Estacado drew Native hunters who camped and watered here while pursuing the great buffalo herds. In 1882 Tom Lynch trailed cattle up from New Mexico and the surrounding country turned to open range, and after the Capitol Syndicate acquired the land the site became headquarters of the largest division of the sprawling XIT Ranch. The State of Texas raised this marker in 1936 during the Texas Centennial to fix that layered history in place.
Why it matters
Spring Lake compresses the whole arc of the Texas Panhandle — from Indigenous buffalo grounds to the barbed-wire cattle empire of the XIT — into a single watering place, showing how a dependable spring shaped who used the land across centuries.
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Related people
- · Tom Lynch
Related events
- · Founding of the XIT Ranch
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Irrigation Well in Lamb County
Earth, TX
In 1902, ranch hands dug this well by hand to water the crops, cattle, and household of Ewing Halsell, son of land promoter W. E. Halsell. Only thirty feet deep but six feet across, it fed an irrigation ditch that carried water half a mile to the headquarters of the "Mashed O" Ranch on the dry Texas high plains. It marks one of the first attempts to irrigate this arid corner of Lamb County.
Earth
Earth, TX
Before settlers arrived, Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa people followed the buffalo across this stretch of the High Plains from water hole to water hole, favoring a spring that later anchored the XIT Ranch's Springlake headquarters. The Halsell family assembled the 300,000-acre Mashed O Ranch here in 1902, then in 1923 began selling rangeland to Midwestern farmers as the plains shifted from cattle to the plow. When the new town's post office opened in 1925, the names 'Fairlawn' and 'Tulsa' were rejected in favor of 'Earth.'
Sod House Spring
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On the treeless High Plains of West Texas, water meant survival, and this spring long served as an Indian camp and watering place. In 1876 buffalo hunters George and John Causey and Frank Lloyd raised the first sod house here—giving the site its name—in what became the region's first permanent settlement. A cattle camp followed in 1882 before the great Capitol Syndicate, which built the Texas Capitol in exchange for three million acres, absorbed the land.
Lamb County Sand Hills
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This 130-mile chain of dunes is a natural landmark with deep human history: archaeological evidence shows people lived here some 6,000 years ago. Comanches later camped among the hills, drawn by game, vegetation, shelter from the wind, and water, and the old Indian trails they followed were adopted by Spanish explorers and, later, Anglo-American settlers. Early ranching left the dunes largely intact, though intensive modern farming and industry have since taken a heavy toll.