Site of Old Springer's Road Ranch

The Handbook of Texas calls Springer's the first ranch in the Panhandle, though the JA also claims the title. It began by chance in 1875, when a trail outfit crossed the Canadian near the roadhouse, sold Jim Springer 300 head and left a young hand, Tom Leadbetter, to help. Black troopers from Fort Elliott found it the one Panhandle place they were welcome to play cards. Later owners included Rhodes and Aldridge; Reginald Aldridge wrote Ranch Notes (1884) from his summers there. Lake Marvin now covers part of the site.

What the plaque says

(12.2 mi. east) First post office in Hemphill County. Unique for tunnel from dugout home-store to corral. On 1870's trail from Ft. Elliott (35 mi. SW) to Ft. Supply, Ind. Terr., to Ft. Dodge, Kans. Established by A. G. Springer; besides running 300 head of cattle, Springer's was a stagecoach stand, tavern; store (mainly for teamster, hunters) had liquor, canned goods, hunting equipment. Poker-expert Springer was frequent host to soldiers seeking entertainment in tavern. In 1877, he and Tom Ledbetter, his partner, were killed in gun battle with angered soldiers and were buried at the ranch. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Marvin — 0.3 mi
  A small 1930s conservation lake on Boggy Creek east of Canadian, named for the Panhandle congressman whose name is on the 1937 law that turned the plains' ruined farms back to grass.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 6.5 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 11 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• The Citadelle Art Museum — 12 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.

More markers nearby

• 133 yards east to site of Historic Cottonwood — 0.2 mi
• Old Military Road — 0.3 mi
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 6.5 mi
• Site of Lyman's Wagon Train Batttle — 7.1 mi