Old Campsite of Jesse and Frank James

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Wise County, and the ground beneath your wheels has some stories soaked into it, the kind that don't wash out easy. This was, according to that marker, an old campsite of Jesse and Frank James.

And when I say campsite, don't picture a tent and a coffee pot and a peaceful night under the stars. Picture two of the most famous western frontier outlaws in American history, running a line of hideouts that stretched from the Rio Grande all the way up to the Red River, and beyond that, clear into Missouri, their home state. That's not a hideout.

That's a system. Jesse and Frank weren't just passing through Texas. They were using it.

Those camps of theirs were working operations, holding ground for stolen horses until the posses got tired and confused and gave up the chase. Now, scattered settlers knew about some of these campsites. And here's where it gets interesting, some of those settlers feared the James brothers, and some of them befriended them.

History doesn't always draw a clean line. Running in that same circle, friendly with the James brothers and also operating sometimes right here in Texas, were Cole Younger and a woman the world came to know as the Bandit Queen. Belle Starr.

Fellow Missouri outlaws, all of them, finding Texas remarkably agreeable for their line of work. And they weren't alone. Not by a long shot.

This was, the marker tells us plainly, an era of widespread lawlessness in Texas. Billy the Kid roamed into West Texas. The Daltons rode through.

John Wesley Hardin, Cullen Baker, Bill Longley, Sam Bass, names that still carry weight, found it easy, the marker says, to kill and rob and then disappear into wild areas where local officers simply couldn't reach them, and where food was plentiful. It was a landscape that rewarded the ruthless and swallowed the pursuit. But things shifted.

After Reconstruction ended in 1874, the Texas Rangers were reorganized, put back together with a purpose, tasked with restoring respect for the law. They were given special powers, and in 1889 and 1890 alone, they arrested 579 wanted men, including 76 alleged for murder. Five hundred and seventy-nine.

By that point, Jesse James and some of the other notorious badmen were already dead. The Rangers didn't have to come looking for all of them. And Frank James?

Frank reformed. Ended up working as a salesman in Dallas, Paris, and other Texas towns. The man who once ran stolen horses through Wise County, who camped in the shadows while posses stumbled past, selling goods in Texas towns.

Sometimes the wildest stories don't end in a blaze. Sometimes they just quietly close up shop.

What the marker says

Famous western frontier outlaws, who had many Texas hideouts along a line from the Rio Grande to the Red River. The camps - extending into Missouri, their home state - were used for hiding stolen horses until posses could be thrown off the trail. The campsites were sometimes known to scattered settlers, who feared or befriended the bandits. Also, friendly with the James brothers (and also operating sometimes in Texas) were fellow Missouri outlaws, Cole Younger and "Bandit Queen" Belle Starr. This was an era of widespread lawlessness in Texas. Billy the Kid roamed into West Texas. The Daltons, John Wesley Hardin, Cullen Baker, Bill Longley, Sam Bass and many others found it easy to kill and rob and then hid in wild areas where they were beyond the reach of local officers, and food was plentiful. After reconstruction ended in 1874, Texas Rangers were reorganized, to restore respect for the law. Given special powers, in 1889-90 they arrested 579 wanted men (including 76 alleged murders). Jesse James and some other notorious badmen by then were dead. Frank, reformed, worked as a salesman in Dallas, Paris, and other Texas towns.