DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to make sure you hear every word of it. One half mile northeast of where you are right now, there used to be a place called Old Tascosa — the cowboy capital of the plains. And friend, that was not an honorary title.
Before the cowboys, before even the town itself, the Canadian River offered up an easy crossing at this spot, and that made it a meeting place. Indians and Mexican traders — Comancheros, they were called — exchanged contraband goods here, including women and children. That's a hard thing to say plainly, but the marker says it plainly, and so will I.
With the passing of the buffalo, the first permanent settlers arrived: Mexican sheepherders, in 1876. That same year, Charles Goodnight and Thomas S. Bugbee brought the first cattle into this free-grass empire.
Smaller ranchmen and nesters followed, and just like that, the boom was on. Now, Tascosa sat hundreds of miles from the general line of settlement. That kind of distance has a way of attracting a particular sort of character.
The marker puts it well — Tascosa lured the lawless and the lawmen both. Billy the Kids, it says. And Pat Garretts.
Plural. Because this place had enough trouble to go around. The gunfights grew.
And they grew serious enough that in 1879, the town set aside a cemetery to accommodate those who died with their boots on. They named it Boot Hill, after the famous one in Dodge City, Kansas — a city Tascosa was already tied to by cattle and freight trail. Boot Hill filled steady, but nothing filled it quite like the afternoon of March 21, 1886.
In a five-minute duel, three cowboys and a restaurant owner died. Four men, five minutes. All of them went to Boot Hill.
But here's the thing about a boomtown built on open range and cattle trails — what builds it can also bury it. The barbed wire came first. The Frying Pan Ranch, just nearby, made first commercial use of it in 1882.
Then the vast XIT spread fenced in its three million acres. By 1887, Tascosa was completely closed in, the cattle trails that were its lifeblood pinched off on every side. And then the railroad bypassed it.
Same year, 1887. The marker doesn't mince words: its fate was sealed. It took a little while for Tascosa to finish dying, the way big things do.
But by the time the Oldham County seat was moved to Vega in 1915, only fifteen residents remained. What's left of Old Tascosa today? Boot Hill.
The stone courthouse. And the site itself, now occupied by Cal Farley's Boys Ranch — which, if you think about it, is one of the stranger endings a wild place ever got.
What the marker says
Old Tascosa, cowboy capital of the plains, lay one-half mile northeast. In its brief span it became the center of the open-range world, stamping ground for some of the West's most notorious bad men and focal point for cattle thieves and ranchmen. Because of the easy crossing of the Canadian River at the site, it early became a meeting place where Indians and Mexican traders (Comancheros) exchanged contraband goods, including women and children. With the passing of the buffalo came the first permanent settlement, made by Mexican sheepherders in 1876. Charles Goodnight and Thomas S. Bugbee brought the first cattle to the free-grass empire the same year. Smaller ranchmen and nesters followed and the boom was on. Hundreds of miles from the general line of settlement, Tascosa lured the lawless and the lawmen: Billy the Kids and Pat Garretts. To accommodate those who died with their boots on in growing gunfights, a cemetery was set aside in 1879. It was named for the famed 'Boot Hill' in Dodge City, Kansas, to which Tascosa was tied by cattle and freight trail. Heaviest toll in a single shoot out occurred March 21, 1886, when three cowboys and a restaurant owner died in a five-minute duel. All went to Boot Hill. The cattle trails, Tascosa's lifeblood, began to be pinched off with the coming of barbed wire, first commercial use of which was on the nearby Frying Pan Ranch in 1882. The noose was drawn still tighter when the vast XIT spread fenced its 3 million acres. By 1887 Tascosa was completely closed in. When the railroad bypassed it the same year, its fate was sealed. By the time the Oldham County seat was moved to Vega in 1915, only 15 residents remained. Sole remnants of the old town today are Boot Hill and the stone courthouse. The site, however, is occupied by Cal Farley's Boys Ranch.