Sod House Spring

In 1901 W. E. Halsell bought 184,155 acres of the old XIT Spring Lake Division at two dollars an acre. It came as two big pastures divided by a stretch of shinnery; the south pasture centered on the old Sod House Camp, the north on the division headquarters at Spring Lake. From 1904 Halsell bought school land in the sand hills while selling farmland to the north to buyers from Hereford. In 1923, after the Santa Fe crossed the Sod House pasture and Amherst was platted, the Halsells began selling that pasture as farms.

What the plaque says

Sod House Spring Indian camp and watering place. Took its name from first sod house built in 1876 by George and John Causey and Frank Lloyd, buffalo hunters. First permanent settlement in this region. In 1882 a cow camp was established at this point by Estes brothers who grazed cattle in the vicinity until the property was acquired by the Capitol Syndicate. Erected by the State of Texas - 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  The oldest national wildlife refuge in Texas, a ring of salt lakes in the sandhills south of Muleshoe where tens of thousands of sandhill cranes winter in a wet year.

More markers nearby

• Rocky Ford Crossing and Community — 4.9 mi
• Town of Amherst — 6.6 mi
• Earth — 8.9 mi
• First Irrigation Well in Lamb County — 10 mi