Frontier Town of Fort Griffin

The Flat lived on hides. The Handbook of Texas calls it a major supply source for buffalo hunters, busiest from 1874 to 1876-77, when hides and salted meat sold briskly. At its height the town held about 1,000 permanent residents and nearly twice that many passing through. It drew the lawman Pat Garrett and the outlaw John Wesley Hardin, and John Selman and John M. Larn lived on both sides of the law. With the buffalo gone and the railroad laid through Albany, the end came fast. The post office closed by the 1940s.

What the plaque says

In the 19th century, the U.S. government established forts along Texas' frontier to protect pioneers. By the early 1850s, Col. Jesse Stem farmed along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, and Thomas Lambshead established his Clear Fork Farm. As others moved to the area, troops at Camp Cooper in present-day Throckmorton County, including then-Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, provided military defense. Camp Cooper closed at the start of the Civil War in 1861. After the war, the U.S. Army established Camp Wilson, later renamed Fort Griffin, near this site in 1867. Fort Griffin sat on the high ground above the river. A settlement developed between it and the water's edge. The town, known also as "The Flat," included merchants, cattlemen and their families. Its permanent populace supported a newspaper, the Fort Griffin Echo, as well as an academy, Masonic lodge and several stores and saloons. A rough element of cowboys, gamblers and renegades mixed with black and white troops to form a lawless scene. Among those attracted to the town were Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, Lottie Deno, Big Nose Kate, Hurricane Bill and Hurricane Minnie. Fort Griffin was a stop for buffalo hide trade, and hides awaiting shipment crowded town lots. Located along the Western cattle trail, it included immigrant residents from several countries. Due to the distance from governmental authority, area residents formed Shackelford County in 1874. The town's population steadily declined after Albany became the county seat and the terminus of the Texas Central Railroad. Notable local businesses included the Beehive Saloon, The Conrad and Rath Store, the Glesk Boot Shop and the Occidental Hotel. The fort closed in 1881, but elements of the town remained in operation into the mid-20th century. The school consolidated with the Albany district in 1942. (2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Griffin State Historic Site — 0.8 mi
  The ruins of an 1867 cavalry post on a plateau above the Clear Fork of the Brazos, judged unfit for habitation and used nine more years, now home to the official state longhorn herd.
• Old Jail Art Center — 15 mi
  An art museum in Albany's 1878 stone jail, where the masons carved their initials to be sure of pay, now holding Chinese tomb figures and works by Picasso and Klee.
• Fort Phantom Hill — 33 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.

More markers nearby

• Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Griffin — 0.7 mi
• Bush Knob Massacre — 12 mi
• Lt. Col. William E. Dyess — 14 mi
• Fort Griffin Fandangle — 15 mi