Site of Cottonwood Springs

J. W. Love was Cottonwood's first settler, arriving in 1875 or 1876, and the town took its name from the cottonwood trees around it. Dr. H. O. Broadnax built the first store. The area's farming prospects drew migrants from East Texas. In 1890 a weekly newspaper, the Prodigal, edited by C. J. Wilson, was published here. The Handbook of Texas names Jim Champion, Dan Robinson, John Breeding, and Green and Henry Robinson among the pioneers, and Bill Orr, Fred Griffin, Elias Norton and J. F. Coffey among the early merchants.

What the plaque says

After Indians on High Plains were subdued (1874) by Gen. R. S. MacKenzie, settlers started to pour into this area, where they found abundant game, water, and good soil for ranching, farming. Cottonwood Springs, at head of Green Briar Creek, was one of first villages founded (in 1875). The town soon became a trading center for southeastern part of county. It had several stores, two churches, and a school; and although usually peaceful, it experienced many gun battles. The town name was shortened to "Cottonwood" after first post office was established in 1883. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 18 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 26 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Lake Brownwood State Park — 26 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Cottonwood Bank and Post Office — steps away
• Cross Plains Review — 6.0 mi
• Fort Mason-Camp Cooper Military Road — 6.1 mi
• Home of Robert E. Howard — 6.1 mi