Site of Old Tascosa

When the railroad came, Tascosa split in two. The Fort Worth and Denver City laid sixteen miles of track across the northeastern corner of Oldham County in 1887, passing within two miles of the old town, and many businesses moved to a new site on the railroad across the Canadian River. By 1890 the two settlements had 350 people between them. Old Tascosa withered and was deserted by 1939, but the newer Tascosa still had two stores and fifty people in 1947, and by 1990 it was a railroad siding and a stock pen.

What the plaque says

Site of Old Tascosa (23 miles N.E.) Contains one of the famous Boot Hill cemeteries of wild west days and was the gathering place for pleasure-seeking cowboys, gamblers and "bad men" of the Panhandle in the 1870s and '80s. Outlaws such as Billy the Kid and lawmen like Pat Garrett and Bat Masterson walked its streets. At first an Indian camping place at a crossing on the Canadian River, then Mexican trading point and pastoral settlement, Atascosa (Boggy Place) rapidly became an open-range trading center and capital of a cattle empire from 1876 to 1887. Romero Plaza and Howard and Rinehart store marked the boom in growth. Struggles between large ranch owners like Charles Goodnight and the "Little Men" of the plains were focused there. Became seat of Oldham County, 1880, and the legal capital of ten unorganized counties. Progress spelled doom for the town. The railroad in 1887 created other important towns and barbed wire fences ended the vital trading routes and great roundups. The open ranges and cattle trails like the famous Dodge City Trail were gone. When county seat was moved to Vega in 1915, few residents remained. Today "Old Tascosa" retains only the courthouse. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magnolia Station, Vega — steps away
  A restored 1920s Magnolia filling station on Vega's Main Street, a barbershop after the pumps stopped in 1953, saved with a National Park Service grant.
• Route 66 Midpoint, Adrian — 14 mi
  The sign in Adrian that puts Chicago and Los Angeles 1,139 miles away in each direction, and across the road the 1928 cafe that took the midpoint for its name.
• Old Tascosa and the Julian Bivins Museum — 22 mi
  The 1884 stone courthouse of the Canadian River cowtown, later a ranch headquarters and the first home of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, now a museum on the working campus.
• Cadillac Ranch — 25 mi
  Ten Cadillacs from 1949 to 1963 planted nose down in a pasture west of Amarillo by the Ant Farm collective in 1974, on private land where visitors are let in to paint them.

More markers nearby

• County Named for Texas Confederate Senator W. S. Oldham 1813-1868 — steps away
• Home County of Doctor Oscar H. Loyd (1868-1959) — steps away
• Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail — 3.5 mi
• Palo Duro Baptist Church — 16 mi