Pat Garrett

Garrett came to Uvalde after an irrigation scheme near Roswell, New Mexico, failed for lack of money, and he left in 1896 when Governor William T. Thornton asked him to become sheriff of Dona Ana County and find whoever was behind the disappearance of Albert J. Fountain. In 1899 he brought ranchers Jim Gililland, Bill McNew and Oliver Lee to trial at Hillsboro; Albert B. Fall defended them, and all were acquitted. Theodore Roosevelt appointed Garrett customs collector at El Paso in 1901 but did not reappoint him in 1906.

What the plaque says

Pat Garrett Pioneer law officer Patrick F. Garrett, renowned for killing outlaw Billy the Kid in 1881, lived in a house at this site during his residence in Uvalde. He had come from Alabama to Texas in 1869; here he worked as a farmer, cowboy, and buffalo hunter. He served as sheriff in several cities and also dealt in ranching operations. He owned property here from 1891 to 1900. In 1908 he was killed in New Mexico after an argument over land, but many people assumed that the quarrel was merely a ruse to force Garrett to fight or be murdered from ambush. 1970

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Briscoe-Garner Museum — 1.0 mi
  The Uvalde house of John Nance Garner, the vice president who made the office a power in Congress, now a free museum to him and to Governor Dolph Briscoe.
• Uvalde Grand Opera House — 1.2 mi
  An 1891 Victorian opera house on the Uvalde square with a turret and a dragon weathervane, once owned by John Nance Garner and still staging volunteer theater upstairs.
• Fort Inge Historical Site — 2.9 mi
  A county park on the Leona River below a 140-foot volcanic plug, where an army post guarded the new road to El Paso from 1849 to 1869 and Texas Rangers camped after.

More markers nearby

• Reading Wood Black — 0.5 mi
• John Nance Garner — 0.5 mi
• Judge John Nance Garner — 1.0 mi
• King Fisher — 1.1 mi