History
Mount Blanco Community
Named for tall white mesa that was a landmark on Mackenzie Trail, surveyed in 1871 by U.S. Cavalry scouting for Indians on the frontier. Near the mesa in 1877, frontiersman Henry Clay Smith (1836-1912) built a two-story stone house for speculators Charles Tasker of Philadelphia and Lord Jamison of Ireland. This was the first permanent homestead in South Plains Region.
History
Old Dewey Lake
Once an important landmark for early surveys of this area, Dewey Lake got its name after surveyors returned from here to headquarters and found, to their embarrassment, they had not yet named this site. Gallantly, they decided to call it after land office employee Miss Dewey.
History
Ralls Cemetery
The original five acre tract of land for this burial grund was purchased from the C.B. Livestock Co. on September 7, 1915, four years after the town of Ralls was founded. The cemetery was first used for the interment of W.H. Shell (d. 1915).
History
Site of Estacado
A town founded in 1879 by a colony of English Quakers under the leadership of Isaac Paris Cox who purchased for them 82 sections of land. The town, first named Marietta in honor of Mary Cox, wife of the leader, was renamed Estacado in 1886 when Crosby County was organized. By 1893 the colony had disintegrated. Moved in 1895 to Galveston County. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
Site of Leatherwood School
This area of Crosby County was settled in 1898 by the family and relatives of M. G. Leatherwood. As other families began to arrive, the need for a nearby school became apparent. As a result, the Leatherwood Common School District was created in 1912. The first classes, held in the spring of 1913 in a one-room schoolhouse on land donated by M. G. Leatherwood, were taught by Ellsworth Ham.
Military
Texas Ranger Campsite
(One mile north) Law and order for plains area began here in 1879 with creation of Camp Roberts, first ranger station in Panhandle. Company C of the newly formed Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers was located here and commanded by Captain G. W. Arrington, Civil War veteran, hard-fighting Ranger, later a Panhandle sheriff and rancher. Battalion commander was Maj. John B. Jones.
History
Two-Buckle Ranch Headquarters, Kentucky Cattle Raising Company
Headquarters for the Two Buckle Ranch was built near this site, at Silver Falls in 1884 by the Kentucky Cattle Raising Company, which had been founded two years earlier by a group of Louisville, Kentucky distillers. Claude Tilford was hired by the company to manage the 145, 240-acre ranch. A variety of grain and hay crops were grown.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
