Site of Old Zulu Stockade

The Cators' sister Clara and younger brother Bert came out from England in 1879 with Jennie Ludlow, who married Bob Cator in 1882. Clara and Jennie were the first White women to settle in the Panhandle north of the Canadian, and they furnished the store with gunnysack carpets and walls whitewashed with creekbed gyp. The first Hansford County post office opened at Zulu in December 1880 with Bob as postmaster. The blizzards of January 1886 nearly wiped out the Cator herd, and Bob and Jennie sold out and moved to Oregon.

What the plaque says

In 1875, a large, two-room pole building furnished with staple groceries and ammunition became the first trading post in Texas above the Canadian River. The stockade, located in Indian-infested country, was fittingly named for the fierce Zulu tribe of Africa. It began as a buffalo camp which crack hunters Jim and Bob Cator (from England) had made the first permanent Panhandle residence at Christmas, 1873. In 1876 Zulu became a major depot on the Ft. Dodge-Ft. Bascom military road, and it eventually received a post office contract. It was finally abandoned, 1912. (1968)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Site of Cator Buffalo Camp — 1.7 mi
• Old Farwell — 10 mi
• Lindberghs Land at Spearman — 15 mi
• Drift Fence — 15 mi