Spring Lake

Halsell made the old XIT division headquarters his own, set in a grove of trees beside the spring-fed lake. It grew to a main house, an office, a bunkhouse and a dining hall whose basement served as commissary. Halsell's Mashed O brand was said to have begun when he took one circle of an older linked brand and flattened it with a hammer on the anvil; it was easy to see, would not blot and could not be put on upside down. Will Rogers visited the headquarters in 1935, when 5,000 Herefords carried the brand.

What the plaque says

Spring Lake Indian camp and watering place extensively used in hunting buffalo. Became cattle territory in 1882 when Tom Lynch drove his herds from New Mexico. After acquisition by the Capitol Syndicate this became headquarters of largest division of the XIT Ranch. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge — 25 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

• First Irrigation Well in Lamb County — 0.3 mi
• Earth — 5.2 mi
• Springlake-Earth School — 8.3 mi
• Springlake Cemetery — 9.7 mi