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History
in a Pecan Shell
Originally a trading post for buffalo
hunters and anyone foolish enough to be traveling this desolate region, Tee Pee
City came into being in the mid 1870s and was named for the numerous lodge poles
left by former inhabitants.
Storekeepers Charles Rath and Lee Reynolds
imported wares from distant Dodge City, Kansas, but soon went in search of greener
prairies and cash-paying customers. They left the store in the care of Isaac Armstrong,
a man who must’ve enjoyed his duties running the one-room hotel and saloon since
he spent the rest of his life there. (He died in 1884 and was buried nearby.)
As the buffalo
herds were wiped out, the hunters moved on, spelling the end of hunter-tourism
in capital letters. Civilization appeared in 1879 with the arrival of the Cooper
and Field families. The Coopers ran a dugout that served a general store and post
office for the few inhabitants.
A school was in operation from the mid
1890s through 1902 but misbehavior by the uncivilized element drove most earnest
settlers on. The post office closed it’s doors in 1900 and Tee Pee City was visited
by the Texas Rangers on the numerous occasions when things got out of hand and
/ or the wrong people were robbed.
The nearby Matador
Ranch made the town off-limits to its employees and actually ended the town’s
wild and woolly existence by buying the property. Today only the graves of the
Cooper family and Isaac Armstrong remain, along with a lone Texas Centennial marker.
More
on Tee Pee City
Rawhides: Business
in Wild and Woolly Tee Pee City
Tee
Pee City Centennial Marker
Tee
Pee City Historical Marker |
 |
Motley
County Tx - Tee Pee City Markers
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, July 2009 |
Related Story by
Mike
Cox
A
buffalo wasn’t the only critter that could get skinned on the High Plains if he
wasn’t careful.
In 1877, when the Panhandle still teemed with hundreds
of thousands of shaggy-haired bison, a young traveling salesman checked in with
his home office at Galveston by telegraph from Henrietta. He worked for Leon and
H. Blum, then the Southwest’s largest wholesaler of staple and dry goods.
“They
directed me to proceed to Tee Pee City in Motley County to collect an account
against Armstrong, who operated a general store [there],” the one-time salesman
later recalled.
Founded in 1875 as a buffalo
hunter camp on the site of an old Comanche village on the east side of Tee Pee
Creek where it enters the middle fork of the Pease River... more |
Tee
Pee City Centennial Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, July 2009 |
Tee Pee City Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, July 2009 |
Historical
Marker TextTee
Pee CityTee
Pee City At the junction of the Middle Pease River and Tee Pee Creek (8 mi. NNE),
is the site of Tee Pee City. In the 1870s, traders established an outpost there
to take advantage of the area's buffalo
hide trade. The small community of picket houses and tents derived its name from
abandoned tipi (tee pee) poles found along the creek.
Charles Rath, an
important figure in West Texas history, was among the partners in the original
operation that resulted in the formation of the settlement, bringing in wagons,
cattle, mules and dance hall equipment. Rath then continued south to establish
his headquarters on the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos, leaving management
of the Tee Pee City camp to others.
An 1877 account of the settlement
identified one or two saloons, a dance hall, gambling hall and two-room hotel,
as well as other businesses. The 1880 census listed 12 residents.
The
R.V. Fields and A.B. Cooper families arrived in 1879, the same year Tee Pee City's
post office opened. By then, few buffalo
remained in the area. Hunters had killed thousands, nearly depleting the southern
herd. Cooper freighted supplies and ran a general store out of a dugout. The community
supported a post office (1879-1900), as well as a school (1895-1902), but Tee
Pee City was best known for its rowdiness, brawls and shootings, which warranted
the attention of G.W. Arrington's Texas Rangers.
In 1904, the Matador
Land and Cattle Company bought the land and closed down the saloon, which had
been off limits to Matador employees due to its
wild reputation. A 1936 state monument placed at the townsite was moved here in
2002. Little remains at the original site, now on private land.
(2002) |
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Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us.
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