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Buffalo Gap Historic
Village
Photo
courtesy TXDoT |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Buffalo Gap dates from 1857. FM 89, aka Buffalo Gap
Highway follows the route of the 1874 old Center Line Trail, which
ran from Texarkana
to El Paso.
Buffalo Gap also had a road running toward Fort
Phantom Hill. Buffalo
traveled through the region going to graze on the high plains and
watered here for the trip, making it a perfect location for the men
who hunted them in the 1860s and 70s.
Being the only community in the county when it was formed made it
a shoe-in for county seat. The town was sizable for the period; boasting
a population of 1,200 by 1880. The Santa Fe railroad arrived in 1895.
Buffalo Gap Presbyterian College was organized in 1883 and opened
its doors two years later.
The Buffalo Gap Live Oak began publication in the mid 1880s
followed ten years later by a second paper, called The Messenger.
The Texas and Pacific Railroad made Abilene
their company headquarters and this created a rivalry to be the county
seat. Perhaps because of the strength of the T & P, Abilene
won the 1883 election. Within a year Buffalo Gap's population decreased
by half. By 1890 the once-prosperous town was down to just 300 but
it rebounded somewhat - to 400 by 1894. The population remained at
or below this figure through the 1980s.
The town is well-known as a Texas cultural center mainly because of
the establishment of the Ernie Wilson Museum of the Old West
which opened in the late 1950s and the restoration of the former courthouse
and jail. The design of the 1879 jail is unique in its construction,
in that cannonballs were mortared into the walls to prevent escape.
It is now listed on the National Register. The museum is now part
of what is known as the Buffalo Gap Historical Village. |
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Texaco Station
in Buffalo Gap Historic Village
Photo courtesy Mary Johnson, May 2007 |
Historical Marker
(on West & Vine Streets, Buffalo Gap)
Town of Buffalo
Gap
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. |
Ernie Wilson
Museum of the Old West
(Former Taylor County courthouse and jail.)
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Photo
courtesy Terry
Jeanson, May 2005 |
Historical Marker:
THE ERNIE WILSON
MUSEUM
Located in Taylor
County's historic first courthouse and jail. Although Taylor
County was organized in July 1868, the building was not completed
until May 20, 1880, because of Indian scares and lack of funds. Scene
of frequent jail breaks, lynching.
Note cannon balls (marked by arrows) keying limestone blocks. |
The Ernie Wilson
Museum historical marker.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, May 2005 |
In front of Buffalo
Gap Store, the sign says it all.
Photo courtesy Mary Johnson, May 2007 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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