DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Site of Old Tascosa, out in Oldham County. Twenty-three miles to the northeast of where you're sittin' right now, there's a place that used to be the beating heart of the Texas Panhandle — and now it's mostly silence and memory. That place is Old Tascosa, and if you listen close, the wind out here still sounds a little like it's got stories to tell.
Before it was anything else, it was an Indian camping place at a crossing on the Canadian River. Then it became a Mexican trading point and pastoral settlement called Atascosa — meaning, the marker tells us, Boggy Place. Not the most glamorous origin for a town that was fixing to become one of the wildest corners of the American West.
But that's exactly what happened. From 1876 to 1887, Old Tascosa rapidly became an open-range trading center and the capital of a cattle empire. Romero Plaza went up.
The Howard and Rinehart store marked the boom in growth. And in 1880, Tascosa was named the seat of Oldham County — and not just Oldham County. It sat as the legal capital of ten unorganized counties.
Ten. That's a lot of wide-open country answering to one boggy little river town. Now here's where the story gets the kind of texture that makes you lean in a little closer to the fire.
The 1870s and '80s brought to Tascosa's streets the gathering of pleasure-seeking cowboys, gamblers, and what the marker diplomatically calls bad men of the Panhandle. Outlaws like Billy the Kid walked those streets. Lawmen like Pat Garrett and Bat Masterson walked them too.
You can imagine the kind of careful arithmetic that required — knowing who was on which side of the law on any given afternoon. And Tascosa has one of the famous Boot Hill cemeteries of wild west days, which tells you plainly that not everyone who came to town left on their own two feet. Meanwhile, the struggles between large ranch owners like Charles Goodnight and the so-called Little Men of the plains were focused right there in Tascosa.
Big cattle interests on one side, smaller plainsmen on the other — and the town holding the tension between them. But progress, as the marker puts it, spelled doom for the town. In 1887, the railroad came through — and when railroads arrive, they don't always bless the towns that already exist.
They create new ones. Other important towns rose up along the line, and the vital trading routes that had fed Tascosa began to dry up. Barbed wire fences ended the great roundups.
The open ranges closed. The famous Dodge City Trail, like the other great cattle trails, was gone. The railroad gave, and the railroad took away.
And the barbed wire finished the job. By the time the county seat was moved to Vega in 1915, few residents remained in Tascosa. The town that had been the legal heart of ten counties, that had sheltered Billy the Kid and faced down Pat Garrett, that had roared with cowboys and gamblers through two decades of open-range glory — was nearly empty.
Today, Old Tascosa retains only the courthouse. One building standing in for everything that was. A Boggy Place that became a cattle empire and then went quiet again, leaving nothing behind but one courthouse, a Boot Hill, and a marker on the highway to remind you what used to be out there — twenty-three miles to the northeast.
What the marker says
(23 miles N.E.) Contains one of the famous Boot Hill cemeteries of wild west days and was the gathering place for pleasure-seeking cowboys, gamblers and "bad men" of the Panhandle in the 1870s and '80s. Outlaws such as Billy the Kid and lawmen like Pat Garrett and Bat Masterson walked its streets. At first an Indian camping place at a crossing on the Canadian River, then Mexican trading point and pastoral settlement, Atascosa (Boggy Place) rapidly became an open-range trading center and capital of a cattle empire from 1876 to 1887. Romero Plaza and Howard and Rinehart store marked the boom in growth. Struggles between large ranch owners like Charles Goodnight and the "Little Men" of the plains were focused there. Became seat of Oldham County, 1880, and the legal capital of ten unorganized counties. Progress spelled doom for the town. The railroad in 1887 created other important towns and barbed wire fences ended the vital trading routes and great roundups. The open ranges and cattle trails like the famous Dodge City Trail were gone. When county seat was moved to Vega in 1915, few residents remained. Today "Old Tascosa" retains only the courthouse. (1967)