Buffalo Springs

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Dallam County, there's a place called Buffalo Springs, and if you want to understand why it matters, you start with the water. Permanent water.

In country this dry, that's not a small thing. That's everything. And it was everything at the opening of the seventeenth century, when this spot was already famous, already alive, already loud with buffalo and mustangs roaming a great hunting ground.

The water made it so. The water kept drawing life in, century after century. By sometime before 1878, it had become a cow camp.

Rough, working, functional. But that was just the prelude. In 1882, Buffalo Springs became the headquarters of the XIT Ranch.

Now, let that name sit with you a moment. The XIT Ranch. Once the largest fenced ranch in the world.

Three million acres. Three million. Fenced.

In a state that was never shy about doing things big, the XIT was the exclamation point. And here's the part of this story that stops people cold, the part that makes you set down your coffee and just stare off at the horizon. That ranch, all three million acres of it, was exchanged for the construction of the State Capitol.

The building standing in Austin today, that grand seat of Texas government, was the trade. Land for a capitol. The XIT for a statehouse.

The marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1936, which feels right. Texas telling its own story, out where the permanent water still runs and the ground remembers the thunder of hooves.

What the marker says

Its permanent water made it known at opening of 17th century as a great hunting ground alive with buffalo and mustangs. A cow camp before 1878. Since 1882, headquarters of XIT Ranch, once largest fenced ranch in the world consisting of three million acres. Exchanged for the construction of the State Capitol. Erected by the State of Texas 1936 (1936)