Tee Pee City
Matador, Motley County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Camp of early buffalo hunters. Only settlement west of Henrietta, north of Fort Griffin and south of Fort Elliott (now Mobeetie) 1875-1880. Headquarters of Texas Rangers under Captain G.W. Arrington at intervals, 1879-1881. Abandoned about 1886. First white child born in Motley county was Nora Cooper born here in 1882. S.N. Armstrong, pioneer merchant, buried near this site. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the late 1870s, when the southern buffalo herds were being slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands, Tee Pee City rose as a hunters' camp on the empty plains — for a few years the only settlement between Henrietta, Fort Griffin, and old Fort Elliott. Captain G.W. Arrington's Texas Rangers used it as a base while policing the raw frontier, and the birth of Nora Cooper here in 1882 marked the first for Motley County. By 1886 the buffalo were gone and the town with them, leaving only graves and memory.
Why it matters
Tee Pee City captures the brief, violent hinge of West Texas history when the buffalo economy collapsed and open range gave way to ranching and settlement.
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Related people
- · Capt. G.W. Arrington
- · Nora Cooper
- · S.N. Armstrong
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Tee Pee City
Matador, TX
In the 1870s, when the southern buffalo herd still darkened the plains of West Texas, traders threw up a rough camp of picket houses and tents where the Middle Pease River meets Tee Pee Creek, naming it for the abandoned tipi poles scattered along the water. Charles Rath and his partners hauled in wagons, cattle, and dance-hall gear to profit from the hide trade before moving on. As the hunters emptied the range, Tee Pee City settled into a hard-drinking outpost of saloons, gambling, and gunplay wild enough to draw the Texas Rangers, until the Matador Land and Cattle Company bought the land and shut the saloon in 1904.
Motley County Jail
Matador, TX
This two-story stone jail went up in 1891, the very year Motley County was organized on the rolling plains of the Texas Panhandle, built by local contractors under the county's first judge and commissioners. Cells filled the upper floor while the jailer and his family lived below. The county's first courthouse, raised the same year, later burned, leaving the jail as one of the oldest surviving symbols of the county's frontier beginnings.
Traweek House
Matador, TX
Dr. Albert Carroll Traweek and his wife Allie came to the West Texas town of Matador soon after their 1897 marriage, and he built a practice riding on horseback and by buggy to reach patients scattered across the county. Renowned as the 'Pneumonia Doctor,' he founded a hospital and served as the county's first public health officer. After fire destroyed an earlier dwelling, this two-story stuccoed home was completed in 1916 for $14,000, its blend of Italian Renaissance, Prairie, and Classical Revival styles designed by builder Charles Stephens Oates. Visitors over the years included Baldwin Parker, son of Comanche chief Quanah Parker.
Motley County
Matador, TX
Carved from earlier Young and Bexar territories, Motley County was created in 1876 and organized in 1891, with Matador as its seat. It honors Dr. Junius William Motley, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who served as an aide to General Rusk and was mortally wounded at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. The county's name misspells his—Motley for Mott—an error preserved in law.