The Founding of Colorado City
Colorado City, Mitchell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded, 1880, at the crossing of the Colorado River and Texas & Pacific Railroad right-of-way; central shipping point and supply depot for the sprawling cattle ranches of West Texas and New Mexico. From 1880 (when A.W. Dunn opened his dirt-floor, tent-roof general store) to 1890 the boisterous cattle town garnered notoriety as well as fame. The largest community between Fort Worth and El Paso, Colorado City had more millionaires than any other Texas town and the most saloons in the West. Law and order was housed in a dugout at the edge of town, where a company of Texas Rangers made all men check their guns. Modest, courageous Ranger Dick Ware was elected first sheriff in 1881. Population soared from 700 to 5,000 in the first two years, as cowboys, cattlemen, merchants, and (as a visitor said) "any number of bummers", vied for space. The first sermon was preached in a saloon and the town "jail" was a chain attached to a mesquite tree, but citizens could find beauty in the lantern-glow from dozens of tents in the center of town. Although drouth and the passing of the open range soon diminished Colorado City's glory, its first decade won for it the epithet, "Mother City of West Texas". (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in 1880 where the Texas & Pacific Railroad crossed the Colorado River, Colorado City boomed from a single dirt-floored tent store into the largest town between Fort Worth and El Paso, the shipping hub for the vast cattle ranches of West Texas and New Mexico. In its wild first decade it reputedly had more millionaires and more saloons than any other Texas town, kept in check by a company of Texas Rangers who made every man check his guns. Drought and the closing of the open range dimmed the glory, but the settlement earned its title as the 'Mother City of West Texas.'
Why it matters
Colorado City captures the explosive, railroad-driven cattle boom that built the American West almost overnight — and the equally sudden bust when drought and barbed wire ended the open range.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · A.W. Dunn
- · Dick Ware
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mitchell County
Colorado City, TX
Mitchell County was carved out of West Texas territory in 1876 and organized in 1881 when the railroad arrived, turning Colorado City into a booming supply hub known as the region's 'Mother City.' Named for War for Independence veterans Asa and Eli Mitchell, the county blended cattle, sheep, and later oil into its economy. Its landmarks — a former Comanche village site and Seven Wells, remembered as a last buffalo watering hole — mark the transition from Indigenous and frontier land to a railroad-era ranching center.
Sites of Texas & Pacific Railway Depots
Colorado City, TX
Rail service reached Colorado City on April 16, 1881, when a Texas & Pacific supply train arrived to build the town's first depot, and cattle pens soon rose on donated land nearby. The railroad and stockyards made the town the great shipping and supply hub for the vast ranching country of West Texas and eastern New Mexico — sending out cattle, hides, wool, salt, and buffalo bones — until passenger service finally ended in 1967.
Majors Home
Colorado City, TX
Built in 1883, this was one of Colorado City's first brick houses, raised by J. P. Hodgson and his wife — a daughter of Texas hero General Tom Green. It later sheltered a succession of West Texas notables, including millionaire rancher Winfield Scott and a promoter of the Texas & Pacific Railroad. Dr. Majors' family has owned it since 1902.
Texas & Pacific Railway
Colorado City, TX
When the Texas & Pacific Railway pushed through this valley in 1880, it turned a scatter of tents and dugouts into the "Cattle Capital of West Texas." Ranchers like Charles Goodnight and the great XIT had already trailed herds into a country where the last buffalo were vanishing and Texas Rangers guarded against raids. By April 1881 the railhead served some 350 residents with a county government, school, and newspaper, and soon shipped out thousands of cattle and freighted in the barbed wire and windmills that fenced the open range.