Tascosa: Historic Site in the Texas Panhandle (The Panhandle Series)

In a verdant cottonwood grove beside the Canadian River, the site known in Spanish as Atascosa (boggy) already had a rich history when in 1876 a Spanish sheepman from New Mexico settled there with his family. This spot near an easy crossing of the capricious Canadian had sheltered prehistoric aboriginal peoples, huge buffalo herds in migration, Spanish explorers, nomadic tribal Indians, Anglo trailblazers, ciboleros (Mexican buffalo hunters). Comancheros (Mexican traders with the Indians), wagon trains going west, white men hunting buffalo for their hides, soldiers from army forts. When cattlemen established huge ranches in the area in the late 1870s, the sheepman's plaza evolved into Tascosa, Cowboy Capital of the Panhandle. Its successor today is the world-famous Cal Farley's Boys Ranch.