DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the T.P. Tavern, out there in Upton County. Pull up a chair — or a barstool, more like it.
This one's got music, rattlesnakes, and a wooden dance floor, so settle in. The year is 1927, and two men — Tom Bargesser and Perry Fitzsimmons — are opening a nightclub in McCamey. They kept the naming simple, the way practical men do: T for Tom, P for Perry, and just like that, the T.P.
Tavern was born. Their first location sat near Shell Pipeline road, and with an oil exploration boom running full steam, the crowds came. Large crowds.
The kind that make a business owner look around and think: we're gonna need more room. By 1934, they had it — a new location, more space, and the thing that separates a good roadhouse from a great one: a wooden dance floor. Now, in 1938, a man named Jim Sloan stepped in to manage the place, and he left his mark on it — literally.
He added teepee insignia right there on the building, giving the T.P. Tavern a look that matched its initials in a way nobody had planned but everybody remembered. The Tavern was part of the west Texas roadhouse circuit, and that meant music.
Real music. Regional musicians came through regular, but so did names that would go on to mean something a whole lot bigger. Ernest Tubb played there.
Lawrence Welk. Bob Wills. Let that sink in — on that wooden dance floor in McCamey, Texas, people danced to musicians who would gain national fame.
Between the music nights, the Tavern found other ways to draw a crowd. Rattlesnake derbies. Boxing matches.
If you wanted entertainment in that stretch of west Texas, you knew where to point your truck. McCamey residents and visitors alike kept the memory of this place, kept talking about it — and then, in 1976, the building burned. Just like that, the dance floor was gone, the teepee walls were gone, the whole thing swallowed up by fire.
But the names on that stage? Ernest Tubb, Lawrence Welk, Bob Wills — those don't burn. Some places live longer in the telling than they ever did in the building.
What the marker says
McCamey residents and visitors remember this site of a well-known nightclub. Co-owners Tom Bargesser and Perry Fitzsimmons used their first initials to name the T.P. Tavern in 1927. The first location near Shell Pipeline road served large crowds during an oil exploration boom. In 1934, the business moved here, accommodating more space and a wooden dance floor. Jim Sloan took over management in 1938, adding distinctive teepee insignia to the building. As part of the west Texas roadhouse circuit, the Tavern hosted regional musicians and many who gained national fame, including Ernest Tubb, Lawrence Welk and Bob Wills. Rattlesnake derbies and boxing matches were also popular before the building burned in 1976.