DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — the story of Buffalo Gap, Taylor County. Now, every good Texas town's got a name, and Buffalo Gap's name tells you just about everything you need to know before you even set foot in it. The marker says it was *probably* named for a pass — a natural break in the Callahan Divide, those mountains that cut through the country — and through that gap walked thousands upon thousands of buffalo that once roamed this whole stretch of land.
That's a sight worth imagining: a dark, rolling flood of animals pouring through the hills. The Apache and Comanche knew this well. Those buffalo fed whole communities, whole ways of life, for generations.
But the buffalo also drew somebody else. Around 1874, the first white hunters came through, following the same herds the Indians had depended on for so long. And those hunters — practical as the land itself — dug their first homes right out of the earth.
Dugouts. Nothing fancy. Just a roof between a man and the sky, and enough shelter to keep hunting.
That was the beginning of what would become a real town. By 1878, Buffalo Gap had grown enough that it was named county seat, and it sat right along the western cattle trail. Things were looking up.
You could almost feel the permanence settling in. But Texas has a way of reshuffling the deck when you least expect it. In 1883, a new railroad town rose up — Abilene — and just like that, Abilene became the county seat.
The railroad had spoken, the way it always did in those days. And Buffalo Gap, like so many small Texas towns that found themselves just a few miles from the new line of progress, lost its prestige. That's the thing about this country — the land endures, the gap in the mountains endures, but a town's standing can shift with the rails.
Buffalo Gap is still here, though. And now you know why that matters.
What the marker says
Probably named for the pass in Callahan Divide (mountains) crossed by thousands of buffalo that once inhabited this area. Besides providing the native Apache and Comanche Indians with food, buffaloes drew the first white hunters here, about 1874. First homes in present town were dugouts of buffalo hunters. The community began to grow in 1878 when it was named county seat and was located on the western cattle trail. In 1883, however, the new railroad town of Abilene became county seat and Buffalo Gap, like so many small Texas towns, lost prestige.