JA Ranch Cabin

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Swisher County, there's a cabin that's been standin since about 1883, and if those walls could talk, friend, they would have some things to say. This was one of the line camps on the JA Ranch, and when I say the JA was huge, I mean the kind of huge that makes a man feel very small and very alone.

Cowboys lived in these cabins year-round. Not just passing through, not just bunking down for a season. Year-round.

Out there near a natural watering hole, which was about the most valuable thing you could be near on land like that. Now, what did a line camp cowboy do with his days? He rode range.

And he kept a hundred miles of fence in repair. A hundred miles. You can let that number sit with you for a moment, because it deserves the respect.

That's not a job, that's a calling, or maybe a sentence, depending on the weather. The cabin itself has had a floor and a new roof added over the years, so what you see today has been tended to, kept up. But the bones of it go back to 1883, back to the JA, back to a cowboy who probably never imagined anyone would stop on a Texas road someday and think about what his life was like out there.

We're thinkin about it now.

What the marker says

Built about 1883, near a natural watering hole, as one of many line camps on the huge JA Ranch. Cowboys lived in these cabins year-round to ride range and keep 100 miles of fence in repair. A floor and new roof have been added. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1969