DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it right along to you. Out here in Coke County, there's a patch of ground called Mule Creek Cemetery, and if you want to know what became of a little place called Mule Creek, this is just about the best place to look. The tombstones will tell you the story themselves, if you know how to read them.
The community was founded sometime back in the nineteenth century — pioneers, frontier land, the kind of settlers who didn't have the luxury of knowing whether what they were buildin' would last. And honestly? The jury's still out on that, depending on how you look at it.
Now, the name Mule Creek — and this is where it gets good — nobody's entirely sure where it came from. The marker gives you two choices and leaves you to pick your favorite. Could've been an early horse and mule ranch in the area.
Or — and this one has a little more drama to it — it could be named for a stagecoach mule that up and died right there at the creek that runs nearby. The Abilene-Fort Concho stage once served this stretch of country, so the mule theory isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. A weary mule on a hard route, a creek in the middle of nowhere — you do the imaginin'.
For years, the principal building out here was a combination school and church. One building doing the work of two, which tells you something about the scale of the place and the practicality of the people. Then came the twentieth century, and with it a shift to urban living that gradually pulled the population away from Mule Creek.
The community diminished. The combination school-church doesn't stand as the center of things the way it once did. What remains, what endures, is the cemetery.
And come spring, the grounds are covered in bluebonnets — the state flower of Texas — spreading out over the resting places of the pioneers who put this whole story in motion. There's something fitting about that. The people are gone, the settlement has quieted, but every spring that land blooms anyway, like it's still got something to say.
What the marker says
Established by pioneers of Mule Creek community, a small frontier settlement founded in 19th century. Said to be named either for (1) an early horse and mule ranch, or (2) a stagecoach mule that died at a creek which runs nearby. The Abilene-Fort Concho stage once served area. For years principal building in here was a combination school church, since 20th century, shift to urban living has diminished population of Mule Creek. Inscriptions of tombstones chronicle history of community. In spring, grounds are covered with bluebonnets, state flower. (1971)