Camp Stonewall Jackson

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out in Archer County, there's a story that starts with a purchase, a purpose, and a whole lot of people who had every intention of keeping something alive. In 1898, the United Confederate Veterans of Archer County bought themselves 106 acres of land.

Not for farming, not for ranging. For reunion grounds. They called it Camp Stonewall Jackson, and if that name didn't tell you this crowd meant business, what happened next surely would.

Every year, year after year, they gathered here. Three days at a stretch. And they weren't a small crowd, either.

Approximately five hundred people attended each year. Now, picture that. Five hundred folks descending on 106 acres of Archer County, and they didn't come to sit quietly.

They came for ball games and dancing, for visiting and contests, for shows and rodeos. The full run of it. The kind of gathering where the dust doesn't settle until well into the third day, and by then everyone's already making plans to come back.

And they did come back. They kept coming back. Annually, without fail, until 1935.

That's the number the marker gives us, and it carries some weight. After 1935, the reunions stopped. The land had held them for decades of summers, five hundred strong, three days at a time, and then it didn't anymore.

That's the whole of it, right there on those 106 acres in Archer County. The Archer County Historical Survey Committee put this marker up in 1967 to make sure the story didn't just blow away with the dust.

What the marker says

106 acres of land bought 1898 by United Confederate Veterans of Archer County for reunion grounds. Meetings lasting 3 days were held annually until 1935. Approximately 500 people attended each year. Activities included ball games, dancing, visiting, contests, shows and rodeos. Erected by the Archer County Historical Survey Committee. (1967)