Site of Reeves Post Office

Reeves served a county still filling up. Briscoe County had 1,253 people and six school districts in 1900, and the number of farms there grew from 170 that year to 307 by 1910. Before the railroad arrived, freight came by wagon from Amarillo or Estelline, and mail reached Silverton from Tulia by stagecoach until 1928, later by automobile. The Fort Worth and Denver branch finally reached Quitaque and Silverton in 1927 and 1928. By then most of the county's arable land was under cultivation, and cotton had become one of its main crops.

What the plaque says

Site of Reeves Post Office (.5 mi. east) Since the railroad was 60 miles from this sparsely populated prairie, the establishment of Reeves post office opened a communication link for the early pioneers. Begun July 13, 1899, in the front room of postmaster Joseph H. Reeves' two-story frame home, the post office served 110 settlers. James U. Strickland bought the house and took over as postmaster August 24, 1905. He served until the facility closed on March 30, 1907, and mail was delivered to Silverton (8 mi. N). After Strickland sold the home to Forrest Leonard Weast in 1909, it was destroyed by fire. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway — 15 mi
  Red canyons below the Caprock escarpment where the Texas State Bison Herd, descended from calves Mary Ann Goodnight saved in 1878, has right of way on the park roads.
• Bob Wills Museum — 24 mi
  The old Turkey school, now holding Bob Wills's boots, hats, his father's fiddle and his barbershop tools, in the cotton town that fills each April for Bob Wills Day.

More markers nearby

• Site of Holt School — 7.4 mi
• Francis School — 7.4 mi
• First Baptist Church of Silverton — 8.3 mi
• First Methodist Church of Silverton — 8.3 mi